Harmless Fun
by blob80
Summary: Life is far too serious to be taken seriously. -Marco/OC-
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

_Prologue_

_..._

If there's one thing everyone knows about being young, it's that you're impulsive. Yes, there's also moodiness, selfishness, rebellion, recklessness, making mistakes, acting stupid and all that other finding yourself crap, but most of all and most important, it's that when you're young you can run on even the simplest and _stupidest_ of **impulses**.

And that's exactly what they were at the time: young and impulsive.

They were both draped across the bed of some random inn, too tired to actually get up and start getting dressed after the many rounds the night prior. Articles of clothing were strewn about the room and through the thin drapes the sun was just beginning to peek out, but it was still dark, that meant they still had about another hour or so together, before the sun ruined everything with its ridiculously blinding rays signaling the start of a new day. She didn't really want to face reality right now.

She was tracing the dark red tattoo on his tanned skin trying to remind herself just what that tattoo symbolized as his own hand traced the wonderful curves of her bare body. It was silent between them, the scent of sex lingered in the air. Tainting the whole room.

Figuring it out, she decided to confirm her suspicions. Moving her sore muscles and getting up to straddle him, she tapped the tattoo on his chest with a dainty finger. "You're a Whitebeard pirate, huh?"

Straight to the point.

"Does that bother you?" He asked her, his forever lethargic eyes finding hers.

She shook her head no.

"Should it?"

He gave a lazy grin and brought his hand up to give her large chest a firm squeeze before tracing down to the right side of her stomach and tapping the tattoo there with calloused fingers.

"You're in Red-haired Shanks crew, yoi." It wasn't a question.

"Does that bother you?" She threw back at him.

He shook his head no.

"Should it?"

She laughed lightly at the expressionless face he had on as he hurled her words back at her, thinking back to last night when he had approached her in the bar, buying her a drink. She could tell when he walked in that he had singled her out. Why? She couldn't say, but she didn't know how he did it, but he had gotten her into bed with him. She usually didn't skimp around with random guys but if she had to guess what _really _got her, it would most likely be that damned tongue of his. How he talked back to her, full of confidence, sarcasm, wit and not to mention being a total smart ass... and not only that, but how _skilled _he was with it. A shiver ran up her spine just from remembering all the sinful things that tongue could do.

"So..." She began "Mr. Pineapple, I don't believe we've had the chance to get to know each other." She gave him a devious grin. "My name is Aiko."

"I'm Phoenix Marco." He let the insult slide.

"Phoenix, huh? You'll definitely be a commander someday." She gave him a small grin and a wink, before contemplating out loud. "Sleeping with the enemy, I don't think I've ever actually done something so stupid. And that's sayin' somethin'."

He shrugged the best he could in his position, looking up into her dark eyes. "We should spend our time in this world doing the things worth doing."

"I've always lived by such a philosophy." She traced his tattoo once again. "So... _Phoenix,_ you're saying that _**I **_was worth doing?"

He smirked.

"Well, gee... thanks." She continued, sarcasm oozing from her voice. "Well, it's not like we're gonna see each other all that often, so I shouldn't have to worry about any awkward tension, right?"

"Unfortunately." He sighed. "What a shame. Might have been nice, yoi."

"A real shame," She just agreed and shrugged his words off. Then she said loudly as if just thinking to herself. "That also means I'll have to kick your ass one of these days _Phoenix_."

"Says the woman who melts when I haven't even shown off my flames yet."

Narcissistic, wasn't he?

She looked down at him. Sculpted body and all, this guy was the works. She really couldn't blame him for developing a massive ego. He could back it up. Unlike many she's met. Still... it didn't mean she had to like it.

"Care to show me then?"

He broke out into a grin.

* * *

_A/N: Short beginning chappie and new story. :DD_

_Anyway, Please Review~!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

The snow fell at a slow and lazy pace on the Moby Dick. By the looks of things, they were obviously approaching a Winter Island, though this _**was**_ the New World they were talking about, so the odds of the Whitebeard Pirates approaching a Summer Island were just the same.

Everything was well and good, a beautiful era to be a pirate. Even more so if you were one of the most revered crews in the world. The times were peaceful, well, as peaceful as it could be for a pirate but truthfully even though they were one of the strongest crews out there, the Whitebeard Prates were on edge.

Not that something bad was just around the corner, nope. Not at all. They were on edge simply because their ship had stopped for a short visit from none other than Red-haired Shanks. Okay, so maybe something bad _was _around the corner.

The Whitebeard Pirates all turned their heads when they heard a loud and clear whistle resounding through the deck, a whistle obviously meant to get attention. It was from Vista up in the Crow's Nest, signaling that they had spotted the rival Yonkou's ship. As the smaller ship approached the Moby Dick, and Red-haired Shanks was about to board Phoenix Marco yelled out to the crew.

"The weak ones stay in the back, yoi."

"What?" A newbie questioned.

"Weak ones?" Another asked.

"What do you mean?"

He pointed a thumb to the back. "Just do it."

Too late.

The _weak _ones fell to the ground, completely unconscious as Shanks boarded the Moby Dick, letting out a controlled at the same time fierce stream of his Conqueror's Haki, his very presence making people pass out and making the Moby Dick itself chip slightly away from the force of his aura.

As he made his way along the deck holding an extremely large jug of sake, his sole attention was towards Whitebeard and Whitebeard alone. Following a few steps behind him were Benn Beckman and "Killer Punch" Aiko, she was carrying a ridiculously large red sake cup.

Marco watched them carefully with his eyes; he recognized that face. She was focused on her captain. How long had it been since that woman granted his eyes the gift of her appearance? _Years. _Since their little one night stand, they had both risen to become prominent members in their crews not through easy work either, and when your standing rises, so does your bounty. He could only go on what he had heard from newspapers and his brothers in the crew and the very rare moments they would somehow find in each other's company- sometimes not always alone. He stared after her, memorizing the finer details and the changes since they had last met, her face had matured more with age, she looked smart but also like the type that got angry at the drop of a hat and... her body, _way _more mature than it had been. Was she still the same snarky woman he had found all those years ago? He grinned to himself, _'no doubt.' _He thought.

He observed her figure, long, dark hair that fell onto her back in waves and in contrast, bright honey colored eyes with porcelain skin, must have been hard to keep her skin that white, especially when on the sea. She was sporting something akin to a silk blanket tied tightly around her waist showing off one long creamy leg and a tank top. She had heavy duty spiked gauntlets on both hands complete with arm guards. The gauntlets didn't match anything and looked so out of place with what she wore but for some reason and a reason that was beyond all explanation, it fit her image just right. And as strange as it was she had... heels adorning her feet. It was uncanny the inhuman number of pirates and marines that could fight so well with kick ass pumps.

Some of the pirates were visibly tense at their presence, but other than that, didn't move a muscle. Thinking that they could easily intervene if they tried anything on their captain or crew. Not to mention, the commanders were currently on deck with everyone, all of them interested in what Shanks had to say. And all ready to draw blood if something unexpected were to happen.

"I told you guys to get back." Marco muttered irately towards the weaker members of the crew, his voice breaking the silence and piercing the tense atmosphere that was caused by the three Red-haired pirates. Though he was probably upset from what Aiko could tell by the sound of his voice he still kept that calm and collected mask of his. Turning to Red-haired Shanks he said confidently. "Look at the mess you made, yoi."

"Oh!" Shanks faced Marco like he was star struck or just had his mind blown to epic proportions, he probably had. "Aren't you the first division commander Phoenix Marco? Hey, how about joining my crew?" He asked excited and completely serious.

"Quit joking around." Marco shot back quickly and hotly, though his blank expression didn't give away anything.

"Haha." Shanks laughed at himself a bit embarrassed. "I guess I should've expected that answer. All you commanders are all so cold."

"Get the hint Captain." Aiko interrupted. "You're annoying."

"That's news to me." He had a surprised look on his face, his eyes wide as saucers. "Bennie, is this true?!"

Benn Beckman just shook his head at his Captain's antics.

"Even Aiko is cold to me." Red-haired frowned like a kid.

Aiko shrugged and turned to look at Marco the _friggin _Phoenix, who was giving her a listless stare. He looked... for lack of a better word _older_, the years showed. He was donning different clothes, but he still had that same lethargic expression on his face and that ridiculous pineapple hair. And he had definitely grown, body completely toned and sculpted as ever, but she meant his height. He was a lot taller than she remembered and towered a whole head and a half over her.

"And just what do you think you're doing brat? Boarding my ship with such a powerful presence." Edward Newgate himself, complete with overcoat and all's voice boomed out.

Her focus then shifted solely to Whitebeard, extremely confident or extremely dense about the effect her presence was having on some of the more paranoid members of the Whitebeard crew. The large man was sitting comfortably, nurses by his side, as he stared down at them with a look of annoyance.

"It was a precaution, I didn't know what to expect, boarding another ship and all." Shanks responded as his voice went from inattentive mind-blown little kid to freakishly focused adult in two seconds flat. Aiko noticed he didn't say 'enemy' ship, at least he was watching whatever nonsense spouted out of his mouth. "I brought a gift." He lifted the large jug of sake with a friendly grin in place and threw it over to Whitebeard who took a sniff.

"West Blue sake? This isn't good enough!" Whitebeard's voice boomed out again.

But Shanks wasn't fazed by his displeasure. "Out of all the oceans, I've found that West Blue's sake has the most healing properties." He gave another pleasant grin. "It's sake from my hometown, please drink it."

Whitebeard looked at him for a moment before taking a healthy swig.

"Good stuff." He said laughing slightly, his opinion about the sake completely changing. "Vista." He called.

Vista stood.

"Take care of these two. We're gonna have a talk."

When Whitebeard said that, the rest of the pirates on the deck began clearing out as Vista made his way over to the two Red-haired pirates.

"Let's leave the Captains alone." He said grinning and playing with the edge of his extremely large moustache. "I'll bring you two to the mess hall."

* * *

As they drank some grog, Aiko noticed that the Whitebeard pirates didn't have much of a problem with them being around. She smiled slightly to herself, they reminded her of her own crew. Welcoming and trusting, but there was also a reason for that. Pirates were only this trusting when they knew they could handle with ease whoever was with them. She had to give it to them, they were a confident bunch.

Finishing up what was last of her grog in one hearty swig, Vista decided that he should start up the small talk now that the two pirates had a good amount of booze flowing through their system and were sure to be a lot less uptight.

"So... Aiko-san. I remember back when you were still a rookie, Pops' thought about letting you sail under us, you know, wreak havoc under his name." Vista began. "But you ended up with Red-haired Shanks. Just what kind of guy is he?"

Aiko's gaze shifted to Vista who seemed genuinely curious as to what type of man her Captain was and why she chose to follow him out of all the other strong ones out in the New World. A man known for his silliness and downright goofy personality. "Well... you know how people say you can't judge a book by its cover?"

Vista nodded as Beckman turned his attention towards her, curious as well as to where she was going with this. She was usually so cruel and straight to the point when it came to what type of person her captain was.

"In _his _case..." She placed her cheek in the palm of her hand and smiled widely at them. "You can."

Beckman shook his head disapprovingly at her.

As Vista was just about to say something in remark, he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of none other than Mr. Pineapple himself, who took the liberty of swooping into the empty spot next to Aiko with all the ease of someone that has known her for years and had every right to sit next to and invade personal space comfortably.

"Don't try to understand her Vista. She'll just give you a headache and when she's on your mind you know you've got a problem, yoi." Marco shrugged his broad shoulders. "It is _never _a good thing, when a woman not from your own crew is on your mind."

"Hmm... _Phoenix, _you speaking from experience? Seeing as how you would know best of all right?" Aiko muttered amused, as they gave each other a stare down. Who would break eye contact first? "How long has it been exactly? I thought you may have forgotten about me."

He shrugged, those lethargic eyes still the same after all these years.

"You? Never."

"Why I'm flattered." She gave him a wink.

"You two know each other?" Benn Beckman finally spoke up. As always, completely serious. He didn't know what it was, but something was off between these two, too much tension lingered in their air. Whatever it was, he didn't like it.

Even Vista was listening intently to every word; except unlike Benn, he had a sly grin on his lips. He knew Marco. And Marco wasn't usually one to initiate any kind of conversation with _anyone_; he just wasn't the talkative type. Especially to a rival Yonkou's crew. If anything, Marco was an action speaks louder than words kind of guy.

"Intimately." Aiko grinned, answering her fellow mate's question.

Vista, Benn Beckman and all the other Whitebeard crew members that were eavesdropping in on the conversation between the four; eyes widened to different degrees in surprise at what she had just said with no hesitation whatsoever. Like it was a common thing for pirates from two other crews to hook up, Yonkou crews at that _and _high ranking members. She could actually hear the sounds of a few men spitting out their drinks in shock.

Marco rolled his eyes.

"Don't kiss and tell, yoi. What if we get into trouble?"

"You mean what if you're teased endlessly by your mate's? Not my problem."

He smirked, those listless eyes seemingly coming to life for a second before he hid again behind his neutral mask. Schooling his expression back into blank.

"Still a smart ass I see."

"It's called wit." She shot back.

"It's educated insolence."

"At least it's educated."

"Tell me, have you grown at all, yoi? Still snarky as ever, you should watch what you say, this is my turf darlin'."

"Well... you don't have to worry about little old me." Aiko eyed him up and down with her eyes. "But, I see _you've _grown. Quite nicely too. Tell me, is your height all that got bigger?"

He couldn't do this anymore.

He let the smirk that's been trying to get loose break freely onto his face.

Not even _trying_ to hide behind his facade anymore.

How the hell was he supposed to remain calm when she so bluntly teased him like that in public with no shame whatsoever?

He looked down at her tank top. _Yes. _She most definitely _had _grown.

He could tell everyone was looking at them, but he just did **NOT CARE** at the moment.

"Care to find out, yoi?" He suggested. "Or do I have to show you my flames first?"

She gave him a teasing grin.

"This _again? _Don't you have any new moves to show me?"

Before Marco could respond and continue their banter however, the ship shook with an explosion of clashing Haki. Everyone quickly snapping out of whatever trance Marco and Aiko had them in used the fastest means they had to getting up and onto deck, be that transforming into a phoenix, soru, pushing smaller members of the crew out of the way or simply running.

As Aiko and Benn reached the deck, they found a terrifying sight. Shanks had drawn his saber and was clashing against Whitebeard. This was the worst possible outcome at the moment for any of them, seeing as how they were on the Moby Dick completely surrounded by not just members of the Whitebeard pirates, but commanders as well.

"No one could have stopped this! This is the turning point for the rampage of the New Age!" Shanks yelled loudly, his haki exploding with his anger.

"Guhahahaha." Whitebeard laughed loudly at what Shanks saod woth complete seriousness, which was rare for the Red-haired captain. "Teach killed one of my sons! Do you think I'll let that go unpunished?!"

Their swords clashed once again.

Creating another pulse of haki reverberate through the air.

"Pops'." Multiple Whitebeard pirates yelled in concern.

"Call Ace back!" Shanks tried one last time.

"Ace will set things straight!" Whitebeard denied again.

"Benn." Shanks called over to him. "Prepare the ship! Aiko! I'm sending you after Ace!"

"Don't think you can interfere with my son's mission!" Whitebeard yelled angrily and pushed his attacks harder, making the very sea which was the New World tremble.

Aiko wasted no time, as Shanks was holding off Whitebeard, she jumped off the side of the Moby Dick and yelled over to the Red Force. "Roux! Prepare a ship!"

They were quick to act and in ten seconds flat had a small boat floating on the sea, which she landed on with unsteady legs.

The Whitebeard pirates were quick to act as well though and Marco came flying down in his phoenix hybrid form throwing a kick aimed straight for her face, Aiko put her arms up and turned on her Armament haki effectively blocking his attack, that was most definitely out to draw blood.

He moved back, landing on the other side of the small deck of the undersized ship. "I can't let you continue."

* * *

_A/N: Please Review :DDDD_


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

"Hmm..." Aiko hummed; face contemplating just who was in front of her. She knew he was absolutely, completely, and positively dead serious about this and she also knew that he wouldn't give a rat's ass that they spent a few nights together. _Hell _he probably wouldn't care even if they had a kid together, this was a direct order from his Captain. To stop Shanks. To stop _her. _ She knew he couldn't –_wouldn't-_ disobey.

She had to think carefully, Marco wasn't your average joe. One wrong move and she'd really die, but to fight Marco on a small boat like this was suicide and she knew it. Not to mention, that if she fought him here this already small boat's end result would be, for short, it wouldn't even be considered ply wood. He had aerial attacks, she didn't. He could regenerate at will, she couldn't. She stared straight at his face; he had on an infuriating smirk, clearly knowing that he had a clear advantage here, in every way possible.

She'd need to distract him.

Distract him and have her captain cut a deal with Whitebeard.

A compromise both captains could agree on.

'_Ugh... Men. So fucking hot blooded all the time._' She thought in pure disdain, her eyes narrowing just a bit at the creepy grin Marco was sending her way. Especially when his face was being illuminated by flames, it just made his face light up in the worst ways ever.

_Damn, he was intimidating._

"You're creepy." She said bluntly.

"You don't seem to mind, yoi." His face was unreadable as hell. But he looked like a cat. A cat that was allowed loose after some time and had just found its favorite toy again; a toy that he couldn't wait to play around with for awhile.

"I do when I see it firsthand. Because I'm pretty sure the last time I saw a grin like that was on the Cheshire Cat." His grin just grew. "Ohhh... you're familiar with the tale?"

"A tale from the North Blue. Who isn't Hon?"

"Hon? Where did that come from?"

He just kept staring at her honey colored irises.

"Ohh..." She realized, the thought clicking in her head. "I get it. Clever."

"I'd love to talk more," Marco shrugged apparently wanting to get this little fight on its way. "But I think it's about time I bend you over backwards."

"Now, now." She wagged a finger to and fro at him. The sounds of swords clashing in the background could be heard, but she just really could not give a shit. She didn't think Marco did either. "Good things come to those who wait."

"Everyone else is fighting yoi. If they don't see us getting with the program were gonna have a bit of a problem on our hands hon." He shrugged once more, but other than that didn't really make any other attempt to knock her face in.

"We are gonna fight." She gave him a ridiculously happy grin, the kind that could rival Fire Fist Ace's. Because when Marco saw it, that's who immediately popped in his head. "Eventually."

"Eventually." He repeated.

"Eventually." She said one last time complete with a nod of her head in the affirmative.

He scratched the back of his head in his usual easy going manner. This girl really hadn't changed. At all. She was distracting him, he knew, but it was the fact that she _could _was what bugged him. So easily, like he was just another common fool stuck in the raptures of a beautiful woman. So easily caught in her web of conniving laid-out traps.

But, the thing was, this worked in her favor.

And he couldn't have that.

Shifting into his Phoenix hybrid form, he flew up.

But he immediately felt a weight latch onto his leg, making him stop and look down at the nuisance clutching onto his left foot. She was there, looking down at the chaos the two fighting crews were making with an impressed look on her face. Marco didn't know if the look on her face was because she was so high up or the sheer amount of damage just two pirate crews could cause, and they hadn't even seriously begun yet.

"Everyone looks like ants, well, y'know, except for Whitebeard of course."

He smirked.

Then shook his leg.

"Whoa whoa... C'mon Phoenix. No need to be like that. I'm not always this clingy I swear." She grinned up at him as best she could in her hanging position. "I didn't want you to leave me down there all by myself, I get lonely easily y'know?"

God, how did this woman manage to make everything that came out of her mouth make it sound like the two of them were some kind of super official, super sweet couple. _When they weren't. _Well, he guessed he couldn't really put all the blame on her, when he would play along with whatever sappy things she said anyway. It was fun. The kind of fun that makes your heart beat faster. The fun where there are no responsibilities and consequences for whatever it was they were saying and doing. It's not like they were together, they couldn't be anyway. Things like relationships don't work out here in the sea. Especially not in the New World. And _most _especially not for pirates. Maybe for some pirates out there, but usually they were part of the same crew. Being on different crews, you'd always have to face the possibility of one day you'd have to kill the one you love yourself.

So that's all it was.

All it would ever be.

Just some plain, old, perfectly harmless fun.

"I don't mind clingy, yoi. Just don't be clingy on my foot."

"Then give some fair warning next time!" She scolded him with a tone so confident as if this was his fault.

He gave her a sadistic grin.

A grin that had Aiko worried what he was about to do, because whatever it was, it wasn't good. At all. He looked just about ready to destroy anything in his path. And with his reputation, it was probably true.

"Sorry about this, yoi."

He was readying into a stance, lifting the leg she was hanging on into the air as if preparing one of his powerful kicks, his fighting technique, kicks he was known and feared for.

"Wait, haha, chill out. Mar—AHHHHHH!" Her trembling voice was cut by her own scream as she went flying with the force of his kick, headed straight for the main mast of the Moby Dick. Some of her and some of Marco's crewmates getting caught in the cross fire of the force of Marco's kick when she came flying past them, the oblivious, innocent pirates flying to the sides, some even off the ship and into the water completely.

"Get him! He's a Devil Fruit eater!" She heard a random pirate yell in panic for one of his mates.

"What happened?" She heard another make out in a confused voice; the guy she figured was most likely clutching at his head.

Before she hit the mast, she got her footing, reinforcing her legs with Haki and coming to a complete stop with her feet on the oversized mast. Her figure crouched onto it, getting a split second to look up as she was on it and take in what had happened to the surroundings. Random pirates had gotten caught in the crossfire, and their fight hadn't even begun yet. Using the mast as a stepping stone, she propelled herself off it at inhumane speed and towards the smirking phoenix commander who had a smug look on his face and was balancing himself in mid air. She aimed a punch right for his face, her oversized gauntlet hitting air though as he dodged, slightly moving his head just in time. The force of the punch though, created a large split through the sea.

Many of the more newbie pirates stopped to watch the two of them, in awe of their strength. It wasn't everyday two of these kind of pirates fought. But if she had to guess, they didn't really know which fight to watch right now, the captains or _which _commander that was currently battling it out testing their skills against a worthy opponent.

When she felt she was about to fall, due to the bitch that was gravity she made sure to land near the awe struck newbies, so as not to worry if any would come up and randomly attack and if they did they would be easy to take care of. Though they most likely wouldn't have interfered anyway, seeing as how Marco would probably order them to stand back, but it didn't hurt to be safe. Even if she was a pirate. Sometimes safe was good.

Marco came flying down on the deck across from her in beautiful blue, green and red flames enveloping his body and the very space around him. She'd never tire of looking at those and she judged anyone that would.

"That wasn't very nice." Aiko began starting up the small talk again. "Tossing me around like that, what if I hadn't regained my footing and ended up breaking the ship's mast? You'd have some major explaining to do."

"If you couldn't even save yourself from that, you wouldn't be a very worthy opponent now would you?" He reasoned out. Blue flames still licking at his entire body, flames she –hell anybody- just couldn't help but notice.

"What if I had gotten hurt? What would you have done then?"

He just looked up towards where they were a moment ago in the sky, and to the sea that was just moments ago split for a brief second. "If anything, I'm the one that got hurt." He showed her a small cut on his cheek, before it was licked away by his flames and was gone. "Those aren't normal gauntlets." He eyed them up, his face neutral and serious once more.

"Oh. You noticed?" She lifted a hand, showing one oversized gauntlet to him. "It's something I had custom made, channels my haki." She grinned at him as he took in the information. "What do ya think?"

"Don't distract me anymore, yoi." Was his only answer, making her click her tongue, so he _did _notice she was trying to buy time and get away. She just looked at him innocently as if to say '_Who, me?_'

But...

He wasn't buying that innocent face.

_No way in Hell._

He ran towards her at crazy speeds and gave her a kick meant to seriously injure right on the side, which she took completely making his eyes widen in surprise then in realization when she pinned his leg and punched him right in the abdomen, the impact making him fly back and break one of the inner railings of the ship when his back roughly collided with it before hitting the wall as Aiko herself coughed up some blood from his attack. She could feel it, his kicks really were painful; she had a few bruised ribs _at least. _Her chest throbbed and it was slowly becoming agonizing to breathe. Did the fucking turkey puncture a lung or something?

The pain was excruciating.

She watched him wipe some blood that he had coughed up from the punch he took straight to the gut. He felt something inside him rupture from that punch, he didn't know what exactly, but it _wasn't _a good thing. "I see." He said seriously and stood up to his full height, ignoring the throbbing pain in his lower abdomen for the moment. "'Killer Punch' Aiko, yoi. Fitting name."

She laughed, a bit strained, but it was still a laugh.

The musical kind, a laugh he wanted to cut short in all sorts of ways.

He shook his head, to rid himself of those kinds of thoughts.

"I hope you're ready, yoi. I'm not gonna go easy on you just because you're my hon." His arms wrapped themselves in beautiful blue flames once more.

"Gee... thanks. I really see the love there" She said dryly. Doing her best to ignore the pain on her side and take deep breaths. "Tell me, do you just want to fight me to relieve some stress?"

He shrugged, not really thinking all too much about the reason.

Orders, stress relief, a test, who cares?

Whatever the reason, he was fighting.

And that was one of the things Marco lived for.

She sighed loudly before saying in an exasperated tone. "I thought maybe I could get away without getting hurt. You know I just want to talk with the captains, maybe settle this a _little _more peacefully. But..." She finally let her face, voice; whole persona become dead beat serious, reminding him a little of her red headed Captain. "You seem to be blocking my way."

And that was it.

The pirates watching them, the sounds of the ocean, the cries of battle, the orders of their captains; Gone. It all disappeared. Vanished, without a trace. The rest of the world ceased to exist. They were the only two on that deck that mattered. They didn't care who got caught up in it, which'd get hurt, only had eyes for the opponent in front of them. Which was so unusual for the two of them, so used to responsibility, to the burden of the life and well being of their fellow mate's on their shoulders. They needed this. To let loose, and for some reason it could only truly happen...

'_When this person is around..._' Both Marco and Aiko thought, each getting into their own stance, preparing themselves for a long and hopefully satisfying fight.

"I'll let you talk with them..." He was smirking, face once again illuminated by flames in the creepiest way ever and his lethargic eyes were, for once, actually _shining_ with what seemed to be a mixture of amusement and excitement. Like a fire had been lit somewhere. His fire reached his eyes. He was way too looking forward to this fight. "Eventually."

She grinned.

* * *

_A/N: Please don't forget to Review :DDDD_


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

**Itachi- A devil fruit wheel? If you eat more than two devil fruits you die.. And i don't really like the thought of overpowering Aiko to such a degree, I create OC stories and try my best to avoid the usual Mary Sue kinds the best I can.. But thank you so much for your review and support, I'll try my best to live up to your love for this story :)))**

* * *

It was late evening, the sun going down in brilliant red and orange flames, the stars were just about ready to peek out and show off their beauty and the moon was once again becoming visible, in a few minutes it most likely would be.

_CRASH_

Aiko kicked an overly large piece of what was once part of the Red Force ship off of her and stood up as best as she could, dusting herself off and watching the sun go down.

Meanwhile, on the Moby Dick, Marco emerged from some of his men that he had been punched into, telling them to get out of his way in a rare irate manner.

He moved to the side of the ship, cautious and annoyed eyes scanning the surrounding area for her presence, looking down the railing and towards the woman's figure on the much smaller ship, she was waving at him in a manner unbefitting of someone her age. With a stupid grin on her face.

"Let's call it a tie!" She yelled over to him.

He observed her, dislodged shoulder, bruises everywhere and probably everything was a little cracked, but it was obvious her head had fallen a _little _loose if she thought he'd agree to a draw. But then again, his ankle was sprained, a few broken ribs, bruises everywhere and he didn't know when it happened, but one of his goddamned fingers were _broken._

_Everything _just ached.

And he sure as hell knew that was how she felt too.

But despite that, they were both standing tall, Yonko commanders indeed.

"What's the matter, Phoenix? Been a while since a woman opened up a can of _whoopass_ on you?" She grinned.

"Look at yourself first."

"Alright, alright." The voice of Shanks intervened; he was clapping his hands in a slow manner. "That's enough you two. Whitebeard and I have settled on something."

"Huh?" Aiko said dumbly.

When did everybody stop fighting?

She hadn't realized that everyone had stopped fighting, even the two captains, when they saw the intensity of her and Marco's fight. Instead, all, deciding to sit down, place bets, have a drink and enjoy the show. She looked around more and realized the full extent of what their _little _tussle had wrought. Railings all over the Moby Dick were broken and one of its massive masts was completely chipped in two, like a twig. The Red Force had a big gaping hole right smack in the middle of the deck, shipwrights were hurriedly taking care of the problem and the little ship she was suppose to sail in to go after Fire Fist Ace had been destroyed completely. Reduced to nothing but nails and chipped wood. When the _fuck _did _that_ happen?

She didn't know, she didn't think Marco knew either. Judging by the quick flash of surprise that crossed his eyes the moment he quit his focus on her.

"I know we all like a good brawl every now and then." Shanks continued talking, chuckling loudly at their faces. It was strange. Strange for two commanders like them to let go. Let go and not notice what they did to what was around them. "And I know Aiko hasn't immersed herself in a fight in a long while and good ol' Marco here probably hasn't been able to cut loose in a long time_. With a girl_." Marco sent a glare Shanks' way as pirates in the background snickered at what Shanks was implying. "But let's all get along alright?" He finished off with a friendly grin. "It's a banquet!"

* * *

Singing, dancing, drinking, eating, cooking and a few women being hit on -because let's face it most of the women were hard ass pirates- _this _is what it meant to be a pirate. And that's what the Red-haired and Whitebeard pirates were doing. Being _filthy _pirates. Whitebeard had announced that they would say whatever they had agreed upon later in the night, but whatever it was it must've been one helluva agreement to get these two Yonko together. Actually, no wait. It was _Shanks, _it could have been a fairly simple agreement.

Aiko watched Marco from across the deck in disdain; he was being hit on by a few of Whitebeard's nurses that obviously had the hots for him. But that wasn't the problem, the real _problem_ was that she was sitting on a crate drinking grog with her ship's doctor who was painfully at work getting her dislodged shoulder popped back into its socket, getting bandages wrapped around her and salves for her bruises. While this flaming chicken just had to shift into his Phoenix form and back. The bastard.

"Now, now." Rho, their doctor scolded her. "Don't make such an ugly face, you're breathtaking face'll get wrinkles." Rho was a lanky man who had a baby face and was known on the ship for always having a woman with him at every port. Well, it was obvious why actually; he could really turn on the charm whenever he wanted to. "What would I do then? You're the Red Forces sweet star on the ship." See?

"It hurts." She pouted cutely at him, hoping he'll be kind enough to do the rest tomorrow, so she could enjoy the banquet.

"Oh, don't be such a baby." He gently took her arm and rubbed some salve onto the disgusting blackish purple discoloring there, it stung, but after a minute, the entire bruise was gone completely. "It's good for you." Rho gave her a winning grin. "Wanna know what else is good for you?"

Aiko rolled her eyes, the only reason they were even able to get a miracle doctor and master of salves like Rho is because he was interested in her. And when Shanks saw that, he dangled Aiko in front of Rho as bait to get him in his merry little band of misfits. Now, like always, she had to deal with his mess. Didn't he know that it was a huge pain to get such a persistent guy off your back? She looked over to the red head in question who was happily telling stories and gulping down copious amounts of alcohol like there was no tomorrow. _Obviously not._

"Sex, kisses, cuddling." Well. That was direct. "Basically anything involving intimate body contact." Rho flashed another one of those dazzling smiles he flashed so many other women when he wanted something, it was handsome she could tell, because she heard one of those hard ass female pirates swoon in the background.

"Sounds interesting." Aiko told him, not really paying attention to anything he was saying. Just nodding and agreeing. She found that it ended conversations much faster. But, he had been sailing with them for a long while, Aiko already knew how to end a conversation with him. "Tell me then, do you want to do those things with me?"

"Hmm... Who knows? I wonder..." Rho said trying to play the aloof and mysterious card on her, but his eyes were going into a daze as he stared at her and his head began to wander. Thinking of just what kinds of things he would do to her. A head strong woman like her, melting like butter in his skilled and experienced hands. He could just imagine the thrill of it. Almost taste it, but not quite yet.

Aiko grinned; she could actually have some fun with this.

"I don't know. You're pretty cool with your healing salves and stuff. But _Phoenix _now _that's _cool." She gave his crest fallen face a happy grin. "I mean, just look at those muscles of his. Not to mention, I already _know _he can take care of me _real well._"

"Why don't you try something new then?" Rho asked boldly.

Wow.

She had to hand it to him.

He really didn't give up.

"We could _actually _have sex in the _air._" She continued as if she hadn't heard him speak. "I wonder if he's improved any."

"Who's improved?" The sound of Marco's voice came from behind her, making her and Rho turn to look at the first division commander who came seemingly out of nowhere.

"Oh! Marco, where are your lady friends?" Aiko asked, making herself try to sound as jealous as possible.

Marco just shrugged.

"And how are you?" He asked as he plopped down on the crate as close to her as possible and handed her another pint.

"Ask the doctor here." She motioned to Rho, who was glaring daggers at Marco.

"She's just fine. She'll be all better by tomorrow as long as she keeps applying this salve and drinks this tonic every 3 hours." He explained through gritted teeth, not wanting to lose to the much larger phoenix commander.

Marco didn't really seem to mind his hostile demeanor towards him, keeping his listless eyes and blank expression the whole time as the doctor was talking. "That so?" He looked towards Aiko again. This time giving a small smirk. "Then we should fight again, hon."

"Ohh!" Aiko's eyes lit up at what he said. "You want me to spank you again Phoenix?"

His smirk grew wider.

"Is that a challenge?" His eyes were burning like fire as they met hers.

"You tell me."

Rho cleared his throat loudly, getting their attention and trying to get them to realize that he was still there, alive and breathing.

"Right." Aiko suddenly said, feeling strangely awkward flirting with the Phoenix commander in front of one of her mates. Or maybe it was just because Rho seemed to like her, teasing him about it she could do, but not full on flaunting the fact that she was interested in someone else in front of his face, that was just too cruel. Especially, when the guy just healed up her wounds for crying out loud. "Marco this is Rho. He's the doctor on our ship. Rho," She pointed a thumb at the first division commander next to her. "Marco."

Marco offered a lazy grin.

To which Rho returned as best he could through gritted teeth.

"So _you're _the one the nurses have been going nuts about, yoi." Marco said.

"Nurses?" Rho seemed to pause, forgetting all previous hostility towards the commander and putting his full attention on his every word.

"Yea. Pop's nurses. They've been talking about you." He pointed in the general direction of where a bunch of nurses seemed to have gathered. When Rho turned to look at them there was a simultaneous yell of '_kyaa_' and '_ohmygod he looked here,_' all seemingly at once. "Doesn't the sound just make your ears bleed?"

But Rho was gone in two seconds flat, leaving the salve and tonic Aiko was suppose to take on the ground in his place. Marco stared after the doctor, both amused and slightly surprised. "Playboy." Aiko said, that one word explaining everything about why the Doc had run off in such a hurry and with no hesitation.

"I'll call him Doctor Dick." Marco suddenly said to which Aiko burst out laughing. "That's what he seems to think with." He finished complete with a shrug of indifference signaling that he was completely serious.

"And you don't?" Aiko challenged.

He gave her a look.

"Oh well." Aiko continued, ignoring the look of warning he was giving her. "I guess not huh? After all, you're not as young as you used to be."

"Now, now. There's no need to go and insult my manhood, yoi." He made a displeased clicking noise with his tongue and looked towards the general direction of where Rho had run off to. "After I saved you from that doctor fellow too." He looked at her once more. "You can do so much better than him, hon."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Whoever could you mean, I wonder." She said voice oozing sarcasm.

"Who knows?" He replied oh so mysteriously, giving her a grin that could have broken Aphrodite's heart.

She flashed him a winning smile.

"Ok, lovebirds." A voice from behind them interrupted smoothly, it was Izou. One of Whitebeard's division commanders. "We've all had enough with your flirting." Izou looked towards Aiko, examining her. "Ohh... I see why Marco likes you." Marco gave Izou a look, telling him to watch what he said, a look that Izou completely ignored and threw out the window without a second thought. "I've never seen him quite like this you know. Be proud, you have the Whitebeard's almighty first division commander whipped." He put up his pinky finger. "All wrapped around your little finger."

Aiko looked towards Marco, who was taking large gulps of his grog and had his eyes firmly set straight a clear indication that he didn't want to be a part of this particular conversation, but even if he didn't, that didn't mean he wasn't listening. Aiko could tell from the moment she met him, even if he didn't want to, he seemed to notice and hear everything around him, a true observer.

She shrugged her shoulders and told the Okama commander the honest truth. The one they all knew but set aside, because all the teasing and whatever else it was, was amusing.

"It's nothin' special." She said, the words making Marco's eyes dart to her, but she kept her focus on Izou. "Just some harmless fun."

"Harmless huh?" Izou repeated the word quietly, his own eyes shifting towards Marco who had just finished his grog all in one go. "Well if that's really the case..." He let the sentence hang for a brief few seconds before continuing; a totally different subject. "I'll go grab some food. I'm starved." And he left, just like that.

Leaving an awkward silence in his wake.

It was uncomfortable.

She didn't like it.

And Aiko broke it before it could last any longer because she swore that Marco wasn't going to and that the bastard probably enjoyed it, because he knew it made her uncomfortable.

"Congratulations you flaming turkey," Aiko began, meeting his lethargic eyes with squinted ones. "I don't even remember the last time I actually saw my own blood."

He looked down at her, gauntlets gone and nowhere to be seen, and all the injuries, big and small, littered across her body. They were healing fast, no doubt thanks to their doctor, but still... they were there, while he sat next to her in tip top condition, utter perfection. As if their fight never even happened. He waved his hand at her, the one that was supposed to be donning a broken finger, but there wasn't even a scar, not even a bruise to show that any damage that day had even been done to it. "You jealous?"

"As if." She turned her head away, focusing back on the partying pirates in front of her. They were being complete idiots.

"Now, now..." He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in close, cuddling his face in her dark tresses and inhaling her scent, already going back to their little game of _'sweet couple_._' _"Don't be mad at me, hon."

"You hurt me I have every right to be upset." She said stubbornly, but all the same opting not to push him away.

"You hurt me too, yoi." He said softly.

"You have absolutely no proof." She shot back hotly and with a haughty air, but her playful tone had him grinning.

Proof huh?

She was right.

He didn't have any.

Instead of responding, he showed her his free hand, face up and fingers outstretched. She looked at him carefully, her eyes asking what he was up to, before a small blue-green flame started burning brightly in his hand. Small and warm, perfectly controlled.

"It's warm, huh?" He asked her, as he saw her eyes staring straight into the flame in his hand. Honey colored irises that were filled with curiosity and wonder.

Lifting for what he probably noticed for the first time a very scarred hand to touch the flames, scars all over the back and palm, but not extending to the fingers which was strange. From what he remembered they weren't like that back then, in fact, she had rather dainty hands when he had first met her. Choosing to sate his curiosity at a later time, he just watched her quietly as she put one hand above and into the flame. Closing her hand down and onto his, until she was holding his hand completely, but Marco only made the small fire move to his fingertip, as she then tried to press over that one to try and put out the warm fire. This continued on for about ten minutes. Him moving the flame to different parts of his hand as she tried in vain to cover it with her own hand in the futile hope to extinguish the small light. When she got tired and found it impossible, she just brought his hand down with both of her own and placed it in her lap. Both Marco's arms now protectively around her like a blanket.

"It doesn't hurt." She muttered quietly, ignoring the rowdy laughter and chatter from all the men around her. Some of them were most definitely about her and Marco, but she doubted anyone would actually interrupt them.

"My flames are only for healing." He explained.

She nodded slightly, before answering his previous question. "It's warm."

He grinned to himself, a small one, before letting go of her completely. He didn't really want to, but he could feel so many eyes on them and they were just supposed to be having fun, this wasn't anything serious nor did he want it to be. He needed to hang around other people, other women, lest they start saying he's in love with her. That just could NOT happen, absolutely not. It's not that he cared much for what people thought about him, it's just that falling in love wasn't a good idea. Especially not with a rival pirate crew. They may be partying together now, but that could easily change at any moment, earlier today was a concrete example of that. Just one wrong move and shit hit the fan.

"Aww, now why'd you stop?" Vista's voice suddenly boomed. He was laughing at a nearby table with Jozu, Rockstar and Yasopp and as usual smoothing out the tips of his ridiculous mustache.

Marco getting up and turning to them said with all the ease and confidence of a man with absolutely no worries in the world. "Why? Hoping for a show?"

They just laughed.

Marco turning and putting a comforting hand on Aiko's head as he ruffled her hair said lazily, "Why don't you walk around? Stretch your legs a bit and get the blood flow pumping? It'll be good for you."

Aiko looked up at him, she knew what he did. She was glad for it actually, it got her out of that daze she was in. She knew that she couldn't fall or harbor any type of romantic feelings towards the first division commander, Benn Beckman even told her that it would be a bad idea. Not that she really listened to what people said, it's just that somewhere inside, she knew it would be too. They had to keep their relationship in check and it was perfect already, just the way it was. There was no need to advance it any further.

"Why? You worried about me, phoenix?" She teased, going back to her jovial light hearted tone keeping a poignant expression on her face.

"Always." He replied back easily as he walked away with a small grin in farewell for the evening. Moving towards where the two captains were seated, discussing old stories in boisterous tones as they gulped down copious amounts of sake, enough to make normal men pass out.

"So Pops..." Marco began as he approached thinking now was as good a time as any, handing Whitebeard a large jug of fine sake he pulled seemingly out of nowhere. "This important thing you were going to tell the crew?"

* * *

_A/N: Please Review._


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

"Son," Whitebeard began as he gave a full grin to one of his most treasured and trusted sons. "Seems your hands are all free now." He teased though his eyes were brimming with a fatherly kind of happiness. "You've found yourself a nice one."

"Watch out for that one." Shanks intervened with a soft voice for once, his own eyes full of fondness over whom he was speaking of. "She's a bit hard to handle."

Marco from what he could see in his peripheral vision, focused and took a quick look at Aiko who was surrounded by a few men from, if Marco recalled correctly, the Ninth Division. They zeroed in on her fast, and thankfully they didn't look too wasted, but he guessed that a few more pints and they'd be so far in the bucket they'd hit on anything that moved.

"No." Marco shook his head. Talking more to Whitebeard then to the red haired annoyance there with them, he said in an even tone. "Don't worry; it's not like that, yoi."

"Is that so..." Shanks muttered quietly.

"I'd say don't wait too long, son." Whitebeard advised before taking a healthy gulp of sake. "But, if it's really nothing then..." He let the sentence hang.

"Yeah. No worries here, Pops." Marco rubbed the back of his head, taking another peek towards Aiko from the corner of his eye. "There's nothing going on between us, yoi." He looked back towards the two Captains. "If there were, I wouldn't really be here then and I sure as hell wouldn't let her be hanging around those guys, yoi." The confidence with which he said those words was highly reassuring, for the men around him and most importantly for himself.

"You make a fine point." Shanks replied with his usual friendly grin in place, not really believing the reassuring words and not taking to heart the silent hostility or _cold treatment_ being sent his way by the blonde haired commander.

Downing what was left of his sake in one go, Shanks stood up slowly and patted the specks of dust on his clothes. "Shall I announce the agreement?" His full focus was on Whitebeard complete with a grin that reached both ears.

"Go ahead, brat. GUAHAHAHA!" Whitebeard laughed as he also finished off the new bottle of sake Marco had just brought for him.

"Could I have your attention?" Though he didn't say it all that loudly Shanks only had to say it once and both crews dropped whatever nonsense it was they were doing. Drinking, eating, singing, dancing, playing music, hitting on women, even those that were already drunk seemed to gain a bit of sobriety waiting for the red haired man to speak. "We've settled on something." The entire ship was eerily quiet; the only sound could be heard was the sound of the beautiful ocean.

Aiko stood a bit straighter and side stepped some of the men that were around her to get a clear view of her Captain. She wanted to hear every word of this, pirate agreements between Yonko was almost unheard of. The four just didn't get along. Enough said.

"Now, I know that Marshall D. Teach, also known as Blackbeard, was responsible for the death of your comrade. Committing the one taboo on a pirate ship." Some of the Whitebeard pirates visibly tensed with anger and fury at the mention of the man they had once called brother. Clenching their fists and gritting their teeth, though some were able to hide the anger better, it didn't mean it wasn't there, just boiling and festering waiting to be released. "And I also know Ace as the commander of the division Teach was placed under went after him and I advised against it, to bring Ace back, which was the cause of our little free for all rumble this morning." He shot a look towards Aiko, who was still healing. "But due to the reckless fighting of two _certain _people here." Eyes from all around immediately darted to Aiko and Marco, both just staring straight ahead at Shanks with unreadable masks, still waiting for him to finish.

"Whitebeard brought to my attention that it wasn't an order for Ace to leave. He did it of his own free will, going against Whitebeard's decisions." Shanks heaved a sigh. "And we agreed that as to my original plan to send Aiko to find Ace and haul his fiery ass back to the Moby Dick." Some of the Whitebeard commanders cracked a grin at that. "Aiko is one of my best trackers. While I'm on this, Ace has never officially met her and will no doubt be _difficult _when she finds him, so we want one of the Whitebeard pirates to go with her, preferably someone strong and close to Ace himself... This is a volunteer mission, because I'll be straight with you," Shanks' eyes took on a more serious and intimidating look. "The chances of you dying from something before even getting a whiff of Fire Fist Ace is extremely high. So... what do you think?"

Some of the Whitebeard pirates looked among themselves and others looked down contemplating what exactly needed to be done here. Chances were that the survival rate for them wasn't even half, alone out in the New World and they didn't even know where Ace was. Sure, they had a Vivre Card, but it wouldn't really help much if he was all the way in the first part of the Grand Line that was ridiculous, travelling that far. Though it was for their comrade, not just any comrade, their _brother._ Aiko could see the determination and confidence in their strength glow and reignite in most of the Whitebeard pirates' eyes, all so sure that they'd be able to bring their hot headed second division commander back. They outweighed the risks and challenges in their heads and she could see crystal clear, their resolve for their family.

'_Will that resolve be enough? This mission will fail if they lack the strength.' _Aiko thought bitterly, as she watched dozens of men all about to raise their hands and the strongest would most likely be chosen by one of the commanders or Whitebeard himself. From what she could see, most of the commanders were silently watching, others grinning to themselves in pride at all the men about to raise their hands, completely offering their lives if it meant a shot at bringing Ace back.

As they were just about to hoist their arms up and into the air to volunteer themselves, they suddenly all stopped. Some of their hands coming to a complete halt halfway in mid-air, others falling limply at their sides in utter disbelief and even some whose whole bodies were frozen in shock, a shock their faces showed. Aiko wondered what had happened.

A loud whisper erupted through the crowd of pirates a combination of:

"Is he for real?"

"What's he thinking?!"

"He can't leave!"

Aiko searched the crowd quickly, doing a quick and efficient sweep with her eyes, as she searched even the commanders seemed a bit shocked though a few others like Jozu, Vista, Izou and Jill had wide grins on their faces. She looked towards the front to the Captains, it was where the rest of the eyes were focused.

There, in between Red Haired Shanks and Whitebeard, was Marco with his usual lazy expression, those lethargic eyes giving away nothing. Not a rare sight, in fact she wouldn't have been surprised if it wasn't for the fact that:

His hand was raised.

* * *

Shanks had on a small grin at just who had his hand lazily lifted up. Elbow on level with his shoulder and feet as wide apart as his shoulders, exuding a natural air of both confidence and relaxation.

"Marco." Whitebeards called, using his usual low gruff voice reserved for when he was displeased with one of his sons. "Just what are you thinking? As a commander, the _first _division commander you're needed here on the Moby Dick."

"I know." Marco answered back. "But isn't this retrieval mission more important than that?" He talked clear and concise, using his logic, he was never one to recklessly jump into anything without getting the facts, he wasn't like Ace or other members of his crew. Whitebeard knew that, everyone knew it, so he explained it with his logic to convince them why he volunteered. To convince himself that it wasn't for any other reason. "Red-haired mentioned the risk rate of this mission, so it would be best to send someone strong, seasoned. There's no one better than me." No one could argue with that. No matter how cocky he sounded. "And someone who could keep up with Killer Punch over there." Marco motioned with his head over to Aiko's general direction, making Whitebeard give her a quick look before returning his attention to the Phoenix commander. "I find no reason to risk a good life out there. And on top of that, I'm close with Ace."

He looked Whitebeard in the eye and gave one of his grins. "It's a win on both fronts. As for my duties on the ship, I'm sure one of the others could easily step up and offer their hand and it's been a long while since I've left the ship. What do you say Pops? Let me bring Ace back for you, yoi."

Whitebeard just stared at his son, rolling the reasoning out in his mind as Marco waited patiently, everyone was quietly waiting if the large man would give his approval or not. He thought it over carefully, this was _Marco._ He could always send another commander out with the girl to get Ace, but the fact that Marco didn't suggest it in the first place meant that he _wanted _to do it. Which was a rare thing indeed. Whitebeard looked towards the girl he was to go with, then back at Marco. If he sent a different commander Marco would most definitely find a reason for it to be him. He was just that kind of guy, getting things his way.

Whitebeard heaved a sigh and said in his booming voice, "You leave at dawn."

* * *

"All ready, yoi?" She heard the sound of Marco's voice, turning around to find him at the doorway of her room in the Red Force. It was a lavishly furnished room, an oversized bed with cushions and book cases everywhere and a large writing desk that was filled with maps, eternal poses and trinkets of all kinds. The shipwright's weren't ones to leave women with anything less than perfection.

"And how did you find me here?" Aiko replied evenly as she turned back to her bag.

"Haki." He answered simply then took a swift scan of the room. "Nice place." She grinned, not that he could see it. He observed her figure, no more bandages and it looked like the bruises were almost completely gone, those salves really worked well. He strode in and took a seat on the bed next to her bag where she was packing the things needed for their long journey together.

"Yes. You can come in." She said dramatically.

"Why thank you, hon." He replied ever so graciously.

She just made a dramatic display of rolling her eyes at him as he watched her place four Log Poses in her pack. Two for each half of the Grand Line. She double checked a med kit that was filled with all kinds of salves, tonics, bandages, and other things. Then rechecked all the clothes she brought, which suffice to say was a lot, because let's face it a woman can't go on a Roger knows how long journey without being prepared for every kind of weather. Though the only shoes she kept were the heels she was currently wearing. Finally, she checked her Beli, it was a ridiculously fat pouch filled with not only Beli but gems, given to her by Shanks direct from their loot stash. He didn't want her suffering from poverty after all, not to say that she couldn't steal it but he didn't want her to dine and dash from every restaurant and bar she planned to grace her presence with.

Grabbing her heavy plated gauntlets and slipping them on carefully over her imperfect hands, she flexed each one a few times, feeling how perfectly they fit. The gauntlets gave her a sense of familiarity and comfort. She felt incomplete without them.

"All set and good to go." She said to Marco as she secured the light brown rucksack over her shoulder after making sure it was fastened shut.

He nodded slightly and got up as they made their way to the deck together, swinging his own bag complete with his necessities over his shoulder. "You packed a lot, yoi."

"Well, not everyone can heal like you." She muttered in the best scathing voice she could muster complete with pout to let him know that she was only joking around with him.

"And all the clothes?" He lifted an eyebrow at her.

"I figured you'd get tired of seeing me in one outfit all the time." She teased.

"Naked works too." He shot back with a completely straight face. "I'll never get tired of that."

She just shook her head. "No can do phoenix. I like being complimented."

He smirked. "And you apparently like playing dress up too."

"Maybe I just want to impress you."

"Now hon. You know I can't keep my eyes off you, yoi."

"I wonder if you'd keep saying that if you knew just how old I am." She shook her head at him as they both rounded a corner.

"And just how old are you exactly, yoi?" He asked, seriously curious about her age.

She gave him a smile. "You can't expect me to own up to it now can you?" He didn't, but he was still curious, he genuinely wanted to know, she had to be a few years younger than him, seeing as when they first met, Shanks' had just become a Yonko, he had only been with Whitebeard for a short time but news travelled fast when you're part of one of the most renowned pirate crews on the sea and he knew that she was a well known rookie entering the New World back then. Though he only found out that she had joined up with Shanks' crew because of her Jolly Roger tattoo.

"I won't tell." He swore, putting his right hand over his heart.

She grinned as she opened the door that led to the deck of the ship, the sun was just beginning to peek out from over the horizon and was preparing itself to begin blinding all those poor bastards that passed out on the deck from the banquet that ended just a few short hours ago. She felt sorry for them not just because the sun would blind their hung-over states, but because they had also become the victims of childish pranks. Most of them had doodles on every part of exposed skin and some even had makeup and dresses.

An Okama nightmare.

"You first then." She grinned. "How old are you Phoenix?"

"Can't you use my name for once? I have one for a reason, yoi."

"Now, now. Don't change the subject"

"Ah. I was caught huh?" He gave her a broad shouldered shrug. "I'll stop then." He gave up, though Aiko was sure that he'd bring up the subject again some time or another. They both headed towards where Red-Haired Shanks and other high ranking members of his crew were gathered near the railing, Whitebeard and his commanders were on the Moby Dick near the railing as well. All of them overlooking a small ship made of the finest lumber. It had one large plain white sail on a mast that had no crow's nest, she had never sailed on a ship so small before, she doubted Marco had either.

As they approached, one of the shipwrights from Marco's crew addressed him. "Sir, the insides have been reinforced with steel at Pops' request. A small ship for your convenience, he advised to remain as inconspicuous as possible." Marco looked towards Whitebeard, who was chugging down a large jug of sake, he grinned a bit to himself.

Another shipwright from Shanks' crew this time approached the two of them, he looked nervous as hell. He was practically shaking, Aiko noticed him as one of the apprentices that had just been taken in. Poor kid, just an apprentice and he was the one they forced to fill in two pirates of a completely different league. She had to wonder what he did to deserve this. When he spoke though, it came out confident and when he started he let it all out in one go.

"The ship has its own paddle system if in case you end up in the Calm Belt. No crow's nest and no cannons on board, we figured that it wasn't needed. There is one bathroom with a large tub and everything you will require, one room furnished with a bunk, bookshelves, desks and the Captains ordered us to have them filled with maps, books and whatever else you might need. The quality of the interior you can count on to be as nice as the rooms in the Red Force. A kitchen also complete and two storage areas, one filled with food and water, another filled with gun powder, rope, and other miscellaneous things that you might find useful on your journey. Above as you can see, are a few planted and securely placed orange trees and herbal plants for your health."

Marco just nodded at him with a blank expression on his face before going into his Phoenix hybrid form and jumping up onto the Moby Dick to bid his crew farewell. Aiko stood, not minding Marco's sudden flight and stared at the kid in surprise, letting that whole speech out in one breath must've been terribly hard seeing as how he was breathing so heavily it looked like he had just run a marathon. Plus when Marco had decided to take off the kid looked like he was about to have a heart attack, seeing the renowned Phoenix Commander transform up close, poor kid probably thought he was going to hurt him.

Turning to Yasopp she said with a grin on her face, "And just what did he do to deserve this? Brand new rookies informing top notch members of notorious pirate crews about their ship, this a new kind of hazing?"

Yasopp sent a smile her way, "He drank the last bottle of Lucky's special North Blue rum actually. Kid was so far in the bucket last night he didn't even realize what he was doing." He finished his sentence with a hearty laugh.

She gave a grin to the young novice shipwright who blushed madly. He was innocent, huh? Cute. "So you guys had this little beauty stashed away somewhere? Complete with a paddle system and you decided to give me that two bit piece of crap excuse for a ship yesterday?"

The kid gulped at what she said, when Lucky Roux intervened, talking while taking one hell of a bite off an oversized piece of meat. "Well, it was sudden. Captain didn't even give any warning."

Aiko sent a glare at Shanks' who smiled embarrassedly in return. The red headed Captain went up to her and the kid knew enough to scram, as he lifted his only good arm and ruffled her hair in an affectionate manner. "You stay safe."

"I know, I know. Don't worry about me." She muttered before walking away with a hand in farewell and jumping on the deck of the much, much, MUCH smaller ship. She wished they had at the very least been generous enough to give a bigger ship; then again it would be harder to man properly with only the two of them, but still... As she landed with a soft _thud _on the deck, her eyes immediately landed on Marco who was patiently standing and waiting for her with his usual lazy demeanor.

"You ready, yoi?" He questioned, an eyebrow raised.

"As much as I'll ever be." She responded, a grin on her face. But then got a thoughtful expression as she held up a finger and said, "Actually, just one last thing." Turning back to Shanks one last time she yelled at the top of her lungs, "CAPTAIN! WATCH ME!"

Shanks grinned at her, staying quiet for once and nodding his head coolly.

As she turned back to Marco, he saw a dazzling grin on her face stretched from ear to ear so far that it was amazing her cheeks didn't crack. It reminded him of someone he knew... Her smile was just as bright and blinding. And apparently contagious too, because he caught himself giving her a lopsided grin of his own that had hers stretching even further, a thing he didn't think possible. He kept his eyes on her, enjoying the feeling for a brief moment. It was a good and special kind of feeling, a sensation like no other, something you'd only understand if it happened to you, watching someone smile because of your own.

"Alright then." She nodded slightly, "I'm ready for my adventure now, phoenix." She winked at him. "Let's have some fun, make sure you take good care of me."

He smirked.

Did she really have to make _everything_ that came out of her mouth an innuendo?

"Always." He responded with an almost _smug_ tone.

"I'll be in your hands then." She quipped back and flashed him that stunning smile again, voice all milk and honey.

He schooled his expression and gave her a careless shrug, before pulling a rope next to where he was standing, the rope unfurling the perfect white sail of the small ship. And as the wind hit the sails, they were off, leaving cheering pirates in their wake.

But after a few minutes of cruising, already a good distance away, the sound of Shanks' voice could be heard, making both turn to look back at the red haired Yonko, who was by then already a small speck of color in the background blotted with the other pirates, even with the use of a telescope. Marco just shook his head while Aiko let out a long and very annoyed sigh, both half exasperated at just what they had heard and half amazed that he could yell so loudly.

Aiko could just imagine the kind of face her silly captain was donning right about now. She had seen it one too many times, to _not_ know_._

The renowned and revered Yonko Captain had on a face of utter panic with his eyes bulging and mouth hanging.

"OH NO BENNY! WHAT DO I DO?! I LET A WHITBEARD PIRATE TAKE HER AWAY! AIKO! AI! I'M SORRY, I WASN'T THINKING COOOOOME BAAAAAACK!"

* * *

_A/N: Please Reeeeeeeevieeeeeeeeeeeeeeew. :)))_


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

Marco watched as Aiko haggled with a man for a few crates of vegetables, it seemed that when they had said the storage room was 'filled', they meant meat and no other basic necessity for cooking, Marco grinned remembering the irritated look on Aiko's face when she had seen the never ending crates of Sea King meat before demanding that they go and get supplies. So, a few days after leaving for their mission they took a little detour -from following Fire Fist Ace's Vivre Card- to the beautiful Harpy Island. A summer island, filled with beautiful women and men, renowned for its sweet candy tasting sake and red light districts, and its international animal was the llama. An island protected by none other than the Yonko Big Mom.

It was a great place for pirates, especially renowned ones, nobody got in the way, well, then again, it was an island full of crime and illegal happenings. Still, this was the New World, Marco and Aiko walking down the streets together caught attention. People must have thought the two great Yonko were plotting something against Big Mom, they'd be watched carefully on this island. Actually, judging by the looks people were giving them they already were. He just hoped the needless attention would die down once they reached the first half of the Grand Line, which judging from the newspapers showcasing Blackbeard on one of the islands happily eating away at some pie- if they saw it, Ace must have as well- Ace was on his way to the first half of the Grand Line, if he wasn't there already, they had a long journey ahead of them.

Marco sighed.

Watching Aiko grin happily at the man that was placing two large crates filled to the brim with fruits, fish and vegetables onto a large cart, the man complete with red cheeks and a shy grin that had Marco wondering if he recognized who the woman before him was or if he really was that stupid. Marco stared at them listlessly, that man wouldn't have been grinning if Aiko hadn't told him to walk around and keep a little distance until she bought everything because it would have been way too suspicious if the two of them were together.

"Better people to think the almighty Phoenix Commander just wanted to have a good time in the Red Light District than two commanders of different crews working together about to blow up Big Mom's turf." She had told him, complete with wink. So, here he was, watching a man blushing and stuttering in her presence as he loaded a cart that Aiko would most likely make the "Almighty Phoenix Commander" push.

Thinking back to the past few days, he had found out many things. Such as, Aiko's seemingly perfect relationship with sleep. They had a good thing going. She could take nap after nap after nap and still be able to fall asleep at night. She hated any and all things mocha. With a passion. And she had never been to Fishman Island. What kind of pirate –no, _person-_ never goes to Fishman Island?

"Hey, tough guy!" Marco was snapped out of his thoughts by Aiko who was waving a hand in his direction signaling for him to come closer.

"What is it, yoi?" Marco asked, stopping a few feet in front of the dark haired woman. The man that had been so captivated and blushing moments before suddenly stood up straighter at her sudden calling for Marco, he had to suppress a smug grin at that.

She pointed a thumb at the cart, "You think you can handle it?"

Grabbing the wooden handle at the very front and giving it an effortless pull with one hand, the entire cart moved with no problem whatsoever. "You make me stay away then call me when you need the heavy lifting done." He remarked lazily, lethargic eyes meeting hers.

"I said you could walk around on your own, you're the one that chose to follow me. Can't get enough of me Phoenix?" she teased complete with wink.

"I like that you're coming up with conclusions, yoi." He smirked, avoiding the first half of her sentence.

"Just reading between the lines" She grinned back.

Aiko moved her head to the side, looking behind Marco at the dozens of women staring at the broad shouldered man's well-built back, all with varying shades of red on their faces, before giving him a stunning smile.

"You're a heartbreaker, Phoenix."

He lifted one eyebrow in that manner of his.

Aiko already knew the next word that was going to come out of his mouth, that little word was the typical response.

"I'll take care of yours."

Her eyes widened in surprise for a split second clearly not expecting that, but then again she probably should have, Marco was unpredictable after all. She schooled her expression back into a careless grin.

"Aww, stop it." She waved a hand between them as if to banish his words. "You're making me blush."

He shrugged.

"Let's get going then, Phoenix. This island gives me the creeps."

So she had felt it too?

His face turned serious for a moment. Though it was hard to tell, since his face usually portrayed boredom and never gave anything away, though if Aiko looked close enough, by the way he was concentrating he was trying to use his Haki to pinpoint the location of whoever it was that had the audacity to stalk two pirates like them. It wouldn't be anyone weak, someone confident in their skills of putting up a fight or had someone big backing them up. If it wasn't that than someone able to get out of their sights and run away as fast as possible at any given time.

Marco couldn't seem to pinpoint who he wanted to though, there were too many people. And most of them had their eyes on the unlikely pair. So, there was no way to tell.

Deciding to not waste anymore time, Marco began pushing the cart filled with crates of supplies, it would've been difficult for a normal man, but pirates in the New World weren't exactly normal.

"This is a lot." He commented, though he understood the reason for all of it. They would be on sea for a while and not make any stops on islands along the way, they were going to solely follow the Vivre Card. This was after all, a mission.

Aiko was about to open her mouth to respond, no doubt with another innuendo, but as they arrived at the small secluded harbor where they had left their ship, she stopped. Two little boys were there, seemingly wanting to go up on the vessel, which to the kids probably looked huge.

"Woooow." The shorter boy yelled. "This must be a pirate ship!"

"No way." The other shot back.

"But, Reeeen! They wouldn't give us so much money just to go look at some fishing boat!" The small boy gestured his too skinny arms at the ship once again, "And look! It's docked all the way here! Who else would dock here, but PIRATES!"

Damn, the kid was loud.

Aiko looked over to Marco, who was lazily watching the kids, waiting to see if they would reveal more about someone supposedly paying such young children to do their dirty work.

"It's way too small for a whole crew and look," He pointed to the white sail. "No Jolly Roger. It's probably some fishing boat, we should do what we need to do, Daiki, before the owners come back."

The two kids circled the ship with their eyes to try to find a rope to help them climb up, but to no avail.

"Why the heck aren't there any ropes to get up?!" Daiki yelled clearly frustrated.

"Maybe you didn't look properly on your side!" Ren shot back, upset as well with the lack of entrance to the ship.

"Or maybe there is no rope up." Marco suddenly intervened behind the two children, whose faces paled at the voice that sounded way too close for comfort.

"Hahahahaha!" Aiko laughed loudly at the pale expressions of the two. "I told you, Phoenix. You're creepy."

The two kids turned and watched the two older adults, the man behind them was unbelievably tall with blonde hair, tan skin and a weird tattoo on his chest, along with strange clothes. The woman who was giving the man a happy grin was almost the polar opposite, pale skin and dark hair, but even then they could tell the two seemed to be in a completely different league of human.

"Well, what are two kids doing on our ship I wonder?" She gave the two of them a friendly grin that had them blushing shyly immediately.

"N-nothing!" The one called Daiki if she heard correctly yelled out.

"We just thought it was really, really cool!" Ren said, trying to make the lie sound more believable.

Marco lifted an eyebrow at the two, who gulped at the Phoenix commander's questioning gaze. She didn't blame the kids, the man was intimidating, what with his self-confident stance and highly reassured gaze.

She gave the two another friendly grin that had them relaxing again, you learn to master it when your around Shanks for any period of time. "Well, were going to head out now." She crouched down in front of them and put a finger over her lips. "So, could you two just keep quiet about what you saw here. It wouldn't do for the two of you to get mixed in with the wrong crowd."

Ren nodded slowly, but it seemed her words went right over Daiki's little head because he said in what he probably thought was a whisper, but was still fairly loud, "Are you a pirate, lady?"

"Hmmm…" She hummed, thinking over what to say in her head. "Are you scared of pirates?"

He shook his head.

"Then I'm a pirate."

He gave her one of the widest grins she had ever seen, the kind that rivaled a little kid she had met ten years ago, if she recalled correctly Shanks had been rather fond of that kid.

"Take me with you pirate lady!" Daiki all but screamed in her face.

"Oi, Daik—" Ren started, but she cut him off.

"No way." She flat out refused, sticking her tongue out at him right after in a way that had Marco grinning.

"Not a chance, kid."

"When I'm older, I'm going to have a ship like yours lady! And sail around with Ren! Like the two of you!"

Her eyes widened for a second before she smiled happily at the two. Ren looked as if he wanted to protest. "A crew of two? How sad."

"There are only two of you though." Daiki said confused.

"We've got an even bigger crew and an even bigger ship with a real Jolly Roger." She said to the star struck Daiki. "And there's no way I could be in the same crew as the flaming turkey over there." She gestured with a thumb towards Marco.

"Oi, oi." The phoenix commander said slightly annoyed at her words. "She wouldn't have what it takes to get to my rank in the first place." He said addressing the boy.

"Eh?" She had a small tick appear on her forehead at his cocky words. "Don't you think you should rephrase that?" She stood from her crouching position and turned towards him with a twitching smile, "Eh, phoenix?"

His feet were spread as wide as his shoulders and he answered with an easy tone. "Last I checked I was the first mate, yoi." He gave her a smug grin just to piss her off.

She felt her Haki itching to be let loose and smash that smug pigeons face in, but she heard the sound of Daiki's yelling once more. "WOW! You're thee first mate?!" She swore the kid had stars in his eyes.

Marco grinned kindly at the young boy, so he could be kind huh?

He pointed proudly at the large mark on his chest, symbolizing who he was.

"You know this mark, kid?"

Both of them shook their heads.

"This is Whitebeard's mark. Know it well, if you two plan to become pirates."

Realization seemed to dawn in their eyes and excitement quickly replaced it.

"Now, now, phoenix." Aiko grinned at him. "Don't go corrupting them."

"They'd find out sooner or later." He shrugged, completely disregarding the fact that these two were here to get information out of them. He'd give it willingly, who knows what the people that ordered them to do this might do if they came back with no dirt. Well, the world would find out sooner or later anyway that the two of them were travelling together. The marines had some crazy stalkers in their ranks that always seemed to get the best photos and all the info.

"Are you part of Whitebeard's crew too?" Ren asked her.

"Afraid not." She replied and pointed towards the blonde man. "I'm this guys' enemy."

Ren seemed to understand quickly though, the fact that there was no Jolly Roger on the ship registering in his mind. Daiki on the other hand…

"Ehhh?" Daiki muttered confused, "Then why are you two travelling together?"

"We've got a few things to settle." Marco interjected then and there, even if he was willing to give out his identity, no way in hell was he going to give out any vital information concerning their mission.

Daiki and Ren suddenly exchanged knowing glances before looking between the two with wide grins on their faces.

Ren held up his left ring finger and said, "So, it's like this, huh?"

Marco and Aiko's eyes widened a fraction before they both grinned.

_This cheeky brat._

"No way, kid." Aiko waved her hand in front of her, completely banishing the thought. "This guy's way too old for me."

"She says that now," He grinned at the two boys, "But a few years ago, she seemed willing to do whatever I wanted, yoi."

The two boys had blushes on their cheeks, embarrassed by the banter that they had inadvertently started in their attempt to make fun of the two much older pirates.

"Ohh, don't confuse then and now, phoenix." She said slowly, seductively. "You were in your prime." She trailed her eyes over his still very well-toned body, it was amazing, how well he aged.

He trailed his own eyes over her liking every bit of it, but for the sake of argument he sighed as if there was a tragedy, those lethargic eyes coming to life. "So were you, hon."

She gave him a threatening smile, a warning to choose his words carefully. Not like he would listen. "Please, phoenix." She flashed him a stunning smile. "You know you want this."

"I don't know." He shook his head at her and gestured with his eyes to the island they should have departed twenty minutes ago. "This place _is_ known for its red light districts."

"What is your number I wonder?"

"Now _that's _a trap." He said seriously which she grinned at. "There's no way in hell I'm telling you that."

"Wow, phoenix. _That _many huh?" She paused to look at him straight in the eye. Her bright honey colored eyes catching him immediately. "Or that little?"

'_Trap.' _He mouthed towards her.

"U-umm…" Daiki and Ren tried to intervene.

She set her attention back on the two awkwardly fidgeting kids after giving Marco a look that clearly said 'this isn't over'.

"You two." She called seriously all of a sudden, it had the two kids looking up at her quickly. "Tell whoever it was who we are." She ruffled their hair, "Don't go getting into unnecessary trouble and stay away from those kinds of people."

"Take us with you!" Daiki yelled loudly. "I want to sail and become a pirate too!"

Marco gave a small grin as Aiko continued, "If you want to become a pirate, then hurry and find us, I'm going to look forward to it."

"Y-yeah!" The two kids yelled at the same time.

Aiko pointed at herself, "I'm Aiko of the Red-haired pirates." The two boys eyes changed when they heard the crew. "And that over there is…" Marco somehow managed to get the crates along with the giant wagon on their small ship already and with one leap landed quietly on the deck of the ship, the act making the kids eyes widen even more. "A show off." She finished laughing.

But Marco seemed to hear her because he immediately scolded Aiko in that tone of his, "Introduce me properly, yoi."

"Marco the Phoenix, First division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates." She said breathlessly and grinned at the two boys before jumping up herself and waving in goodbye, "He's cute, right?"

The two laughed and said in clear voices, "We're gonna become pirates and even beat you guys!"

"It's great to have an unattainable dream." Marco muttered, making Aiko laugh and nudge his side.

The two kids ran off, to God knows where as Marco let the sail down and she undid the rope, heading once more towards their fiery destination.

* * *

A man put down his telescope when he saw the ship set sail.

"Sir, they've just left the harbor." The grunt saluted towards his superior, who was busily chewing dozens of candy all at the same time in his office.

"Killer Punch Aiko and Marco the Phoenix travelling together, huh?" He muttered to himself as he looked at the bounty posters of the two big names. "Just what do they plan to do? Have Whitebeard and Red haired formed an alliance?"

"What should we do, sir?"

"Follow them of course." He clicked his tongue, not at all liking the idea of tailing such powerful commanders.

"Y-y-yes!" The man saluted and ran off to relay the order.

Taking another handful of candy and chewing on it a little too harshly, he grabbed the nearest frilly polka dotted pink Denden Mushi and dialed _her _number. The Denden Mushi ringing for ten agonizingly slow seconds before a particularly irritated man answered.

"Hello? It's me, I need to speak to Mama."

* * *

_A/N: I'm sorry for the wait for this chappie, college had been keepin me busy, not to mention the fact that Microsoft was messing up on me, so I had to reinstall the whole thing._

_In any case, as always Please Revieeeewww!_


	7. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

A few days had passed with no trouble and at the moment, the stars were twinkling brightly in the night sky above them, the push and pull of the waves acting as a natural lullaby on the silent ship, the night air was cooler than normal, they must've been approaching a Winter Island. She would love to stop, but they were following the Vivre Card and unless they really needed food or anything they wouldn't be stopping anytime soon.

She was freezing, donning only her comfortable nightgown, she was only out here because she was waiting for the Messenger Gulls to deliver the newspaper, when out in the extreme conditions of the Grand Line, the Gulls didn't keep a specific time and since it hadn't come in the morning that meant she had to wait for it now. But if that damned bird didn't come soon, she'd go back inside to the warmth of the ship. Rescanning the dark skies, speak of the devil, she spotted one high up, it would have gone unnoticed were it someone with weaker eyesight. Aiko waved it down as it was flying by and it immediately descended, letting her take a newspaper in exchange for some Beli. Handing the bird what it was due before it took off back into the night, she began reading the paper as she made her way back to their room.

She dug through the many wanted posters that came with the newspaper, there were many rookies out in the world right now and it seems they were growing at an alarmingly fast rate. Both in power and in reputation. No doubt they'd cause problems when they got to the New World. She read through each headline carefully, a particular one making her smile. One her crew was probably holding a banquet over right now.

'_Strawhat Pirates Take Down Shichibukai?'_

'_Big Mom: A Hungry, Hungry Hippo'_

'_X-Drake Leaves the Marines?'_

'_Rearranged Body Parts?'_

'_Eustass Kidd: Uncontrollable Temper'_

She skimmed through the other topics and tried her best to focus on Luffy's article, but to no avail. The headline of the paper nudged at her, no matter how hard she tried to shove it in the back of her mind.

Opening the door quietly to their shared room, the small light coming from the small lamp inside illuminating the area just enough for her to see everything. She glanced at Marco who was already fast asleep and spread out on the bottom bunk, she envied him. He just seemed so… comfy. He was sleeping shirtless his bare chest rising and falling slowly with his legs and arms strewn about, the blanket he never used, once again balled up to the side unneeded. Totally relaxed and free from all worry, he didn't usually sleep like that, during the first few days of their journey he always seemed to be on edge and could never get more than a few hours of sleep. Though the sleep deprivation must have been catching up to him now, seeing as how he had fallen asleep right after supper. She quietly placed the wanted posters on the small round table in the middle of the room before going to sit beside his form on the oversized bunk bed, newspaper still in hand.

The small movement seemed to rouse him from his slumber though, as he peeked an eye open to look at the outline of her blurry back against his torso, his eyes adjusting to the dimness of the room. He saw the large newspaper she was holding, seemed she was too preoccupied with the headline to notice that she had woken him up. If it was still dark though, that meant it was nighttime, then why was she reading the newspaper? How long had he been sleeping?

As if sensing his no longer sleeping self, she turned her head and gave him a small smile, whispering to him as if he were a child that had woken up from a nap and would fall asleep faster if she talked in a lower voice.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" She didn't wait for him to answer, "You should go back to sleep, it's almost one AM, I'm just finishing this up." She gestured to the newspaper in her hand.

Marco didn't move at all from his position, opting to stay put, it was just too comfy to ruin. "Anything interesting?" He asked, the haziness of sleep slowly disappearing from his mind.

He felt her hand rub up and down the length of his bare chest, sometimes stopping to let her fingers trace his tattoo before resuming their slow route again. If this was supposed to make him sleepy, it was only partially working. Her hand continued its steady trek as she read the headline of the day's newspaper.

"_Marines? The Common Enemy" _She began, "Recently, an unlikely pair has been spotted on Harpy Island in the New World," There was a picture of them walking towards the harbor where they had hidden their ship, how did Marines even get their hands on this kind of stuff? She also had to wonder if Daiki and Ren were the ones who had confirmed who they were, but she somehow doubted it. Those two seemed like the trouble making types, there was no way they'd simply bow down to the demands of the Marines. "The First division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates: Marco the Phoenix and the Red-haired pirates' Killer Punch Aiko."

"Not much can be said about this unlikely pairing that are rarely ever seen leaving the sides of their Captains, let alone their main ship. Are two of the New World's Emperors allying with one another? Are these two leaving the pirating world to elope together? Or are they off to war? Only time will tell, but one thing is for certain, this isn't the first time they've gone off together to pursue their own individual tastes."

She showed Marco a picture at the bottom of the page, it was of the two of them, Marco looked like he was about to lean in and kiss Aiko senseless, they looked young there the picture was taken back in the bar they had met all those years ago, the one that had led to a _very, very _impulsive night. How in the world had the Marines gotten something like _that? _All his mates were probably laughing at him right now. No doubt, the laughter would start up again when he got back to the Moby Dick. _Just great._

"This isn't a newspaper, this is gossip." She frowned at the paper in her hand, her other hand still preoccupied with stroking his bare chest, not that he was going to ask her to stop.

"Well, they only put that on front because of our crews, yoi." Marco muttered.

"Yeah, I know." She sighed. "Still… it's a bit annoying." She dropped the paper to the floor at her feet with a dull _thud_.

He shrugged as best he could in his position. "It's not really something to worry that much about, Hon, we're out to get Ace, that's all that matters." She nodded slightly at his words, so deciding to change the topic to something lighter, he made a gesture to her hand stroking his bare chest. "Couldn't resist, yoi?"

"It was too tempting." She smirked at him.

"Then do I get to feel you up too?"

"It doesn't work like that, phoenix." She grinned at him. "I'm still sizing you up. But I can tell why you're so eager, I was probably the best you ever had, right?" She gave him a wink.

"You wish, yoi." He replied, not wanting to push too much into that topic and instead letting her have her win. It was night, they were in bed and if he wanted he could pin her beneath him right this moment. The mood was too good to be having one of their usual banters and nothing _good_ would come out of getting too close. Even their stupider, younger selves knew that. This wouldn't amount to anything, except needless pain and worry on both sides. They had to keep this their fun little game.

Aiko also backed a bit away when she felt the atmosphere, her hand on his chest slowing before coming to a complete stop, so as not to look too unnatural. In the dim light, Marco could see her eyes shining, caught between hesitation and some other nameless emotion.

"Time for bed, huh?" She asked suddenly.

Marco grinned, summoning one of his bright blue flames to his hand and letting her admire it, she always seemed to love looking at them before going to bed.

"Goodnight." She mumbled before standing up to climb up the bunk, they'd usually switch beds every day or so because they both seemed to like the bottom bunk better. He admired her form in the dim light, lithe form covered by her nightgown. Roger, which god did he piss off to deserve this kind of torture, this never ending temptation?

She quickly climbed up and after some rustling around with the sheets as she tried to get into a comfortable spot, he heard her as she finally steadied the bunk steadying with her, ready for bed.

Sitting up and sighing to himself, he rubbed the back of his head with a hand. His brain apparently thinking it was a good idea to keep the tingling sensation of her hand running up and down the length of his chest at the forefront of his mind.

"Night, yoi." Marco called back, now very much awake.

* * *

_A/N:__** Please read this!**_

_Alright guys this is more of just a fluff intermission thingy. __ Cause, well, I felt that I skipped their first days together and went right on ahead to bring them to the first island, so this is to make up for that._

_But, have no fear, the next chapter will actually be longer like my other chapters and involve more plot, this, I promise._

_As always, Please Revieeeeewww!_


	8. Chapter 8

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

Late the next morning, after Marco had finally been able to fall asleep, he walked out onto the deck -shielding his eyes form the glare of the fully risen sun- hearing the sound of Aiko speaking to an overly obnoxious voice he was all too familiar with.

She was seated in the slim line of shade provided by the mast and had a DenDen Mushi in front of her, donning its very own red shell and the infamous scar along its left eye.

"AIKO!" It was obviously Shanks on the other end. Marco would have to be a fool to not know who it was. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" Aiko had both the receiver and the DenDen Mushi a good few feet away. "THAT GUY HASN'T DONE ANYTHING TO YOU RIGHT?! YOU CAN COME BACK!"

"Sheesh, Captain. This is why I call Benn most of the time when reporting." Aiko sighed.

"Don't be cold Aiko." She could _hear _the grin in his voice. "Benny's a bit busy right now, getting his booze for the banquet! Said he had something real special just for me! Can you believe that?" Aiko could just imagine the childish grin he was donning.

"A banquet without me, Captain? I'm hurt."

"It's not the same without you Aiko!" He said very quickly. "Don't let that Whitebeard pirate do anything weird, I saw the paper! HAHAHAHAHA! Rho was rather heartbroken!"

"That was a long time ago Captain!" She defended, now yelling herself.

"Whatever you say, Aiko."

She didn't like that nonbelieving tone of his.

She looked up and noticed Marco looking at her with his usual bored expression, sighing she said "I'll talk to you later, Captain."

"WAIT AI-"

She hung up.

For a second, she grinned at the Den Den Mushi trying its best to catch its breath from all the yelling it was doing because of Shanks. Poor thing was wheezing and everything.

"Your Captain's still as noisy as ever." Marco remarked, listless eyes looking even lazier in the morning.

"And why haven't you gone and called up your mates I wonder? They must be worried about you." She grinned at how he rubbed the back of his head, obviously dreading the thought.

"I think I'll deal with the laughter and teasing another day, yoi." He muttered, tone displeased and mind obviously on the gossip panel that the journalists or whoever it was that fixed it up decided would be a good idea to release.

"Well-" Aiko stopped mid-sentence and quickly looked out towards the sea. Marco seemed to feel it too because he was staring in the same direction. "We've got a stalker." She tried to pinpoint more ships, "Just one?"

"A lot of men." Marco said clearly bored. "Or… wild animals?"

"I think your Kenbunshoku Haki is more developed than mine, phoenix." Aiko muttered "I'm not too good with identifying from such long distances." She looked back towards the general direction of the enemy ship, right now it was just a speck of black in the background, but if that was a real pirate ship, they'd have no problem catching up.

"You get used to it, when you're stuck on the Moby Dick all the time, yoi."

"Hmmm…" Aiko hummed and got out a tiny telescope, checking the sail of the ship currently heading their direction. "It's one of Big Mom's. Shall we lay low for a bit? They might not know that we're on this ship and think it's some kind of fishing boat or travelling merchant or something."

"Yeah." Marco agreed. "That sounds good." The last thing they needed was to start a war with Big Mom while they were away from their crew. Attacking them now would be reckless if they didn't know if that ship was really tailing them or just heading in the same direction. They were near a Winter Island after all, though that particular island was under the protection of Whitebeard and they'd have no business on it, Yonko were strict about the pirates that entered their territories, so maybe a different destination?

"You think they're going to stop by the next island?"

"That island is under Pop's protection, yoi, if they're planning on stopping by, I'm planning on questioning them." Marco said confidently.

"Hmm…" Aiko gave him a grin, "Maybe they're returning the favor? I don't think they liked it all that much that a Whitebeard and Red-haired pirate so easily went on Big Mom's turf." A thousand thoughts instantly ran through her head, did Big Mom think they wanted to wage a war against her? It's not like they did anything bad, sheesh, they were on that island for an hour tops and everyone gets their panties in a bunch.

"How annoying." Aiko muttered under her breath. "Well, they're bound to catch up to us, phoenix." She looked back out at the rival crew, quite a distance away but she knew that it was steadily coming closer and gaining on their poor excuse of a ship. "Hiding or questioning, whatever you decide to do, decide now."

He didn't move an inch.

That was enough of an answer for her.

"Are you scared, yoi?" He asked in a way too smug tone. He had his hands in his pockets, feet shoulder length apart and chest sticking out proudly showing his Whitebeard Jolly Roger permanently inked on his perfectly toned chest. His eyes though, never left the ship as it slowly but steadily approached.

Aiko gave a small grin, not like he could see it with his back towards her, before she flexed her hands a few times to get the blood pumping and she quickly adjusted her gauntlets, preparing for a fight if push came to shove. "Are you?" She shot back.

He smirked.

* * *

"Sir!" A man hastily ran up to his superior who was seated in his office, noisily chewing on candy. "We've spotted Marco the Phoenix and Killer Punch Aiko!" He could see the man breathing heavily, as if he was already in danger when they hadn't even passed by the damned excuse of a ship yet. How could two commanders stand such a small ship? It didn't even look like it could survive a New World storm.

The man didn't even bother acknowledging his lackey and instead walked briskly past him and towards the deck. His heavy footfalls alerting everyone of his presence. Grabbing a telescope from an unsuspecting lackey, he saw the two pirates his lackey's seemed to be so afraid of.

And there they really were, Marco the Phoenix standing tall and proud with a blank look on his face staring straight at their ship, waiting, and at his side was Killer Punch Aiko, her hands on her hips with a huge grin adorning her features.

The man grimaced, breaking the hard candy in his mouth with one hard bite before directing his men to pull up towards the side of the puny boat.

* * *

Marco watched with half-lidded eyes as the larger ship made a complete stop next to their much smaller one. Making and holding eye contact with, who was most probably, the captain of the vessel. Marco sized him up immediately, the Captain was pint sized though many were small compared to Marco's towering height, standing at about two heads shorter than him donning a pink jumpsuit with red stripes that hurt his eyes just looking at them. Dark purple hair and shades to cover his eyes, Marco couldn't see any visible weapons, but the Captain had guts, to be looking straight at him.

"An o-ka-ma nightmare." Aiko said flabbergasted, completely breaking the silence.

Marco sighed and broke eye contact to give Aiko a look. She was definitely in Shanks' crew. No doubt about it.

She just smiled at him in return.

He heard a few wolf whistles coming from the other crew and could see them eyeing up Aiko, who also seemed to notice and grinned cheekily back. Marco sighed, irritated, at the hearts in their eyes. Wasn't this supposed to be a serious talk?

"They call me Kit." The captain spoke up, biting through another hard piece of candy. Didn't he know his teeth would fuck up?

_Eh?_

Both Marco and Aiko's heads snapped up to look at the Captain properly.

…

_Wasn't that?_

"Are you a _girl?_" Aiko voiced out the question on their minds making Marco suppress a grin at her tone.

"WHAT?!" Kit screeched in a high pitched tone, clearly the question got to her, him, whatever. "NO! I'M NOT! I'M A GUY!"

"YEA! Don't say that about the Captain!" His crewmates were quick to defend.

"The captain just has a naturally girly voice!"

"He can't help it if it's high pitched!"

"SHUT UP!" Kit yelled, clearly pissed.

"Hahahaha." Aiko laughed without restraint in the young captain's face, "I'm glad we cleared that up then." And she flashed them a friendly grin, the kind you pick up and master when you hang around Shanks. "Don't you think so too, hot stuff?" She asked Marco, grin still in place.

He just shook his head at her, but she could tell he was amused.

"So," Marco's hostile tone got everyone back on track, "Where do you think you're headed?"

"And is that any of your business, Phoenix?" Kit shot back aggressively.

"It is. Since the next island is under Pop's protection." Marco replied, voice somehow both calm and hostile at the same time. Holding a threat, but never losing his cool.

"We thought we would return the favor," Kit gave a sly grin. "Seeing as how you lot decided that you'd be welcome even in Big Mom's turf. Mama's angry." He said it as if the Yonko was there and going to kill them if they decided to harm even a single disgustingly purple hair on his little head.

"I don't see her around." Marco said relaxed.

Though he had to see how things played out, if the kid said something wrong, he couldn't just up and destroy their ship, they could end up starting a war just because everyone seemed to overreact about a few supplies. It's not like they stole them and the Red-haired pirates were known to stop by on any island regardless of whose territory it belonged, but suddenly everyone becomes trigger happy and ballistic when a Whitebeard pirate accompanies them.

"Hmm…" Aiko contemplated a few things in her head before speaking. "We were just grabbing a few supplies. Red-haired pirates walk freely on everyone's turf." She lifted her tank top, showcasing the Jolly Roger tattooed near her hip for emphasis. "Everyone knows that."

It wasn't that red-haired pirates were allowed to go everywhere, it's just that most Yonko would keep to their own respective islands, choosing not to bother with anyone else, Shanks though was the exception, he was just a hard-headed adventurer.

"Just because you do, doesn't mean Mama isn't angry at you!" Kit roared at her. "You Red-haired pirates are all so cheeky and full of yourselves thinking you're free to walk around anywhere. Well, you're NOT! Especially not with a Whitebeard pirate! What are the two of you doing together anyway?! HUH?! Just what are the you planning to do to Ma-"

Kit was cut off by a burst of Haki that just barely missed his head, cutting his cheek and splitting the main mast in two, like a twig. Men began screaming as they got out of the way of the oncoming sail about to fall on them thanks to the bitch that was gravity.

"Oi, kid." Aiko muttered seriously, making Marco look at her through the corner of lethargic eyes, eyes glowing fiercely and a smooth expression of silent fury decorated her face, he was reminded of when he had fought her at the beginning of all this. "What did you say about my crew?"

So he was right when he had first assessed her back on the Moby Dick, she was the type that got angry at the drop of a hat.

Marco could see Kit taking out a set of daggers and getting into a fighting position. His crew seemed to follow, all ready to move at their Captain's command.

This was bad.

He needed to stop this.

Now.

Marco dropped a hand on her head, making her glazed over eyes go back to the kind ones he was so used to seeing.

"Wait, yoi." He said, voice clearly exasperated. "I have questions."

"I don't care if you have questions! I won't answer anything you damned people have to say!" Kit yelled back.

"Oi." Aiko could feel the fear that shot through the other crew as Marco summoned a few bright blue flames, giving him an eerie glow. His face, in that light, looked sadistic beyond belief. It was unfair, his reputation, that just by calling his name it could strike fear in almost anyone. "I wasn't giving you a choice."

You know what else wasn't fair?

Him.

Stopping her and in the end taking the action for himself.

Her eye twitched at his attitude.

* * *

And not ten minutes later, Aiko sat comfortably on an empty crate on the deck of their small ship eating away at a persimmon with a contented grin on her face. All around, in the sea were the remains of a once large pirate ship reduced to nothing but ply wood and crew members hanging on for dear life, yelling profanities in her direction.

Marco sat next to her, bored expression still in place as he stared down at the cocky pirate captain sitting cross legged in front of him. Kit scoffed at their overconfidence they didn't even bother tying him up, he hated being taken so lightly. He kept clicking his tongue, wanting some candy so badly, it was becoming physically painful. He had lost all his candy when the damned Phoenix commander suddenly up and started destroying everything, then Killer Punch following his lead.

"So… I don't think you can actually reach wherever it was you were planning on going." Marco started, never losing his calm exterior even when the young Captain sneered at him. "Tell Big Mom, we aren't out to cause any trouble, yoi. We just needed supplies, which were properly paid for, by the way."

"We got information, from an outside source." Kit decided to tell them, so that they would know that whatever nonsense about supplies they were spouting out was bullshit. "That Whitebeard and Red-haired Shanks met and allied together to take _someone _down." He sneered. "The two of you together is proof enough of that. Mama _will _hear about this_._"

Aiko and Marco shared a look.

"Outside source?" Aiko questioned.

"That's none of your business!" Kit shot back.

She grinned at him. "Well, I doubt you know anyway." Kit's eyes widened at her claim. "I bet you were just on Harpy Island at the time, so Big Mom told you to keep an eye on us and you got cocky thinking you could take us down or get info from us." She could tell she was right on mark by the way Kit seemed to fidget. "You're not an important piece," She taunted. "There's no way you know who this _outside source_ is."

"It was the Marines!" Kit shouted, but as soon as he did he puckered his lips shut as tight as humanly possible.

She grinned.

"The Marines, eh?" Popping a persimmon in her mouth, she looked over to Marco who had a thoughtful expression on his face. "I'm amazed at their information network."

"Are the Marines trying to pit the Yonko against each other?" He let out a sigh, "The world will fall to an imbalance, yoi."

He stood up motioning for Kit to follow, he did albeit warily. When they made it to the side of the ship, Marco muttered, "I hope you're not a Devil Fruit user, yoi."

And with that, he pushed him off the side of the ship.

"AHHH-!" Kit yelled, high pitched voice screeching making Aiko wince, before being cut off by the water which splashed so much despite his small self.

"Captain!"

"Hurry! He can't swim!" His crew yelled already trying their best to swim over and help the young Captain latch onto ply wood. So the kid really was a Devil Fruit User, too bad they didn't get to see it. That or he didn't know how to swim, but just what kind of pirate doesn't know how to swim?

"That wasn't very nice." Aiko told Marco as she walked up to where he was looking at the pirates squirming and stranded in the sea as their own ship sailed off. Slowly leaving them further and further behind. Soon, they'd become just specks in the background or sea king food, there was always that too.

"I'm not very nice." Marco replied simply. "I need to call Pops about this."

She nodded slightly. "No doubt the Marines are up to something."

He had a faraway look in his eyes, undoubtedly assessing the situation in his head and all the possible outcomes. That along with his power, she could easily see why he was the first division commander. The aura he exuded was different from the rest, it was also part of the reason she felt so attracted to him all those years ago, despite having just met him. The man had an appealing air about him.

"Hey, Marco."

His eyes quickly darted towards her at the sound of his name leaving those lips, it sent a sensation tingling throughout his whole body, all the way from the soles of his feet, up his head and down to his fingertips.

"What's on your mind? I'm getting jealous." She flashed him a grin. All milk and honey.

"You, of course." He lied, playing along with her easy going attitude.

"Liar." She responded immediately, but she still had that grin adorning her features, clearly pleased about his half-assed response.

"Never, yoi." He said back just as easily, "If I told you all the things I wanted to do with you, you'd run away. So, I'm left to fantasizing."

"_Please_, phoenix." She looked him straight in the eyes, those honey colored irises catching his attention instantly. "You're not _that _unbelievably mind blowing."

"I beg to differ." He gave her a narcissistic smirk. Jeez, how many different smirks did this guy have?

"Careful there, phoenix. Nobody likes egotistical men." She couldn't blame him though, he had been regarded as one of the most powerful men in the world for years now, something like that was bound to inflate your ego.

"I don't mind, yoi." Shrugging those broad shoulders before continuing, "As long as you like me its fine."

"Well, _I_ don't like egotistical men."

"Liar." He threw back at her, complete with infuriating smirk.

"You're impossible." She muttered.

"I try, hon." He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her so that she crashed on his chest.

The first thing she noticed when she did, was his height again. "You really have gotten taller."

"Didn't you say something about wanting to see what else got bigger?"

He was really going all out today wasn't he?

She'd have to up her game.

"Hopefully, _it _did. The size was pitiable, downright laughable actually, the first time around."

His mouth formed into a displeased frown.

"Oi." He pulled away a little, so that he could look at her face clearly. "Don't go insulting my manhood, yoi. It's done nothing, but fulfill your wildest dreams."

"Does 'wild' mean something else in your dictionary?"

He rolled his eyes at her snarky attitude. Something not many can say they've made the almighty phoenix commander do. The ability to be able to bring those lethargic eyes to life.

"What's with you and insulting the family jewels? I didn't see you insulting them at _that _time."

"I was young." She shrugged. "And inexperienced."

She didn't seem inexperienced to him at that time. There was no way she was a virgin back then, which meant she was lying, definitely lying.

"Ohhh…" But instead of calling her out on that blatantly obvious lie, he decided to focus on the other thing she had said. "And just how old were you at that time?"

"Haven't we been through this already phoenix?" She shook her head at him. "This is a trap, like if a woman asks if she has small boobs. You can't say yes 'cause she'll be insulted and you can't say no because then she'll know you were looking at her breasts."

He raised an eyebrow at the analogy, but didn't question it.

She was right after all.

"Well, I just want to know if I'm bordering on becoming a pedophile." Marco said as casually as possible. She was amazed at how he could retain such a straight face while saying that, even she wanted to laugh and she was doing a very poor job at suppressing it too.

"Why? You only interested in older women, phoenix?"

He shrugged. "I wouldn't know, you don't want to tell me your age."

"I'll tell you if you tell me how many women you've slept with." She said with an innocent smile.

Rolling his eyes once more. Aiko could feel a twinge of pride in the pit of her stomach at getting him to do that _again_.

'Trap.' He mouthed towards her.

And she laughed.

Freely and without restraint.

He watched her, laughing in his arms -eyes crinkled in absolute mirth- a hand over her mouth trying in vain to suppress it. It gave him a different kind of warmth to see her laughing so comfortably around him, he wasn't so blind as to not know what kind of warmth it was. It settled deep in his stomach and pinched at his heart, and he couldn't seem to get enough, like an addict needing his next fix. When did he become so greedy?

Her laughter slowly seemed to die down, and he let go of her before it completely did. Observing the way she wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye.

'_This is bad.' _He thought.

_**You've got it bad. **_Something whispered to him in the back of his mind.

He cursed whatever part of him that agreed with that.

Shaking his head to rid himself of his own traitorous thoughts, he needed to focus on Ace. This was why they were out here in the first place, if Ace wasn't gone then he'd still be back on the Moby Dick… left to wonder. He didn't know if he should be thanking Ace's fiery temper or cursing it for giving him this temptation that he now needed with all his being to resist.

_Resist._

Even though his head knew it, his heart couldn't seem to catch up.

Aiko looked at him strangely, he was looking at her, but not exactly at _her. _As if he was seeing a spot well past her. She waved a hand in front of his face, catching his attention and releasing him form whatever trance he put himself in.

"Are you hungry or something phoenix?"

He just nodded his head at her with his usual composed face.

Not really hearing what she was asking.

He wasn't paying attention, she could tell. But she didn't push him to focus, instead she said, "Then let's have brunch. We've got a long day ahead of us."

* * *

_A/N: Peeeoppple, thanks for all the favorites and alerts and stuff :D_

_Please don't forget to review!_


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

Later that evening, they had talked about the first part of the Grand Line and whether they should head towards the mountain or cut through the Calm Belt since their ship had its own paddle system anyway. As much as they wanted to go through the mountain again for the thrill, they opted to take the faster route, which was the Calm Belt. So, once decided they had immediately changed course to go to the left side of the Calm Belt, left, because they were currently going on the newspapers for any sightings of Ace they could get and he was apparently sighted on islands all stationed on the left most part of the Grand Line. Though from what Marco assumed, he'd most definitely head deeper and not just stay on the outskirts. In any case, the man wasn't making it easy to find him, he'd be spotted on some new island every day or two.

It would be impossible to catch Ace if they blindly followed his Vivre Card. Meaning they needed to chase Blackbeard as well, but no matter how much they checked the newspapers or called up their mates, there were no sightings of Teach. Which meant once they got to the first half of the Grand Line, they'd have to ask around the old-fashioned way and try to beat Ace to whatever island the tub of lard was on, in hopes of running into the fire user. Because they'd get nowhere chasing around his Vivre Card like this. Sometimes, Marco wished it would say in exact numbers just how far the fire user was, no doubt if it had his distance on the Vivre Card, his life would be so much easier.

After they had finished planning out their next course of action, Aiko decided to go and take a shower, complaining about how sticky she felt. Marco, on the other hand, was in their shared room having a stare down with the large DenDen Mushi in front of him, it had the same moustache as his Pops had and even had the Whitebeard Jolly Roger, somewhere in the back of his mind he vaguely wondered how old this DenDen Mushi was, did DenDen Mushi live as long as humans? Was this thing older than him? It had wrinkles, so it looked pretty ancient. Looking at the other large DenDen Mushi next to it, he didn't know what was up, but it just looked, for lack of a better word: _younger. _It had Shanks' cape and scars and looked young compared to the _elder _next to it.

Why did they even have these two giant DenDen Mushi? When they had about ten other extra ones, small babies at that, which were convenient to carry. The one he always had on him, was even designed after Aiko, since they had decided to exchange. For some reason, she had called the baby DenDen Mushi designed after him extremely cute. How the hell was a snail cute?

Marco watched as his oversized DenDen Mushi _wheezed._

It was ridiculous.

They had a _fossil _on their ship.

Rubbing the back of his head and ridding himself of the nonsensical thoughts that were completely unrelated to what he needed to do. He inwardly groaned, still staring at the _fossil _in front of him.

He knew that he was just trying to avoid dialing that number, even if he had something important to tell Pops, he _really_ didn't feel like calling in. He just _knew _he'd be teased relentlessly by his boisterous mates. But, he couldn't avoid it forever.

'_Might as well get this over with.'_

Sighing and mentally preparing himself he dialed up the number he memorized so well.

_Purupurupurupuru…_

_Purupurupurupuru…_

* * *

_Purupurupurupuru…_

The DenDen Mushi in the middle of the deck was ringing, making the Commanders, the crew and even Whitebeard himself stop whatever it was they were doing and put their full attention on the DenDen Mushi still ringing.

_Purupurupu—Kacha._

Vista answered and immediately adjusted it to speaker.

"It's me, yoi." Came Marco's voice from the other line.

Izou was the first to speak up. "It's about time you called in, Aiko-chan taking up too much of your time?" The DenDen Mushi captured Marco's bored expression perfectly, but everyone knew that he was a bit irritated.

"We saw the paper!" A random crew member yelled out.

"We didn't know the two of you knew each other from so long ago." Jill remarked, laughing.

"I don't think I've ever seen you so interested in something then the way you were in that picture." Vista remarked, curling his long moustache between two fingers.

"You should have said something, Marco!" Izou spoke once more. "Then we would've tried to see the Red-haired Pirates more often!"

Marco could hear the entire crew laughing at him from his end as he expertly kept his cool. If he lost it, they'd never forget let him forget it.

"GUHAHAHAHAHA." Whitebeard's laugh echoed as it always did, he took a large swig of sake before continuing, "How are you there, my son? Is my daughter-in-law well?"

The crew laughed again.

"Oi, oi." Marco muttered irately, obviously losing the battle for his composure. "Don't get carried away, it's not like that, yoi."

"Not from what we saw on the paper." Jozu spoke this time, everyone deciding to gang up on Marco who never seemed too interested in any woman in particular. Sure, he'd go out and be with a woman when he wanted, he was a man he had certain needs after all, but to actually see the renowned phoenix commander going out of his way to respond to a woman with words instead of actions, it was new.

And the banter and playful arguments between Marco and Aiko were too good to _not_ tease him about.

"Hey, tell us what you guys did after that picture in the bar?!" Another random crew member yelled, Marco couldn't recognize him, he wasn't from his division.

"More than you've ever gone with a beautiful woman." Marco muttered back, not liking the idea of the entire crew out to get him.

The whole crew laughed so loudly, Marco's elder DenDen Mushi was beginning to breathe heavily. He hoped this thing didn't suddenly die on him. He wouldn't know how to explain that to Aiko.

"You should hurry, son." Whitebeard had that fatherly tone in his voice again. "You wouldn't want her to be swept off her feet right from under you."

Marco shrugged, not like they could see it.

"I'm fine with the way things are now, Pops." He said lowly, but he was sure everyone there could hear him loud and clear. "Anyway," His tone was all serious. "Big Mom's angry at us, she thought that we were plotting to go to war with her, she even had someone tail us when we left Harpy Island. The one that followed us told us that the Marines seem to be spreading rumors, they're trying to turn us against each other. Be careful, you don't know which DenDen Mushi's they've tapped."

The silence from the other end proved that everyone was listening intently to his words and that they were probably rolling over the situation in their minds, so he just continued without waiting for a response, "We've decided to go through the Calm Belt, seems Ace is in the first half of the Grand Line. We'll enter the Calm Belt sometime tomorrow afternoon." He had nothing left to say, except "I'll definitely get him back for you, Pops."

"Yea." Whitebeard acknowledged the words of his first division commander as the rest of the crew cheered a chorus of '_hell yea' _and_ 'bring back Ace!'_

"Marco." Whitebeard called his name, making everyone go silent, waiting for their Pops' to say what was on his mind. "I've got an order for you."

"Hmm…?" Marco asked curious as to what his Pops' wanted to say.

"When you come back with that woman, I expect to see a round belly."

He sighed exasperated as he heard the numerous wolf whistles through the DenDen Mushi that kept changing its expression to match whoever it was that was talking, if they kept this up this thing really would die.

"Roger." He confirmed loudly in his usual manner when Pops wanted him to do something, making the wolf whistles increase, but he ignored them. Even Pops wasn't on his side? This was a new low. Going so far as to mock order him to do something like _that._

"All right then, yoi." That was enough teasing for one day. For a whole year, actually. "I'll call again."

"Yea." Whitebeard acknowledged.

"Hey!" Izou yelled, "Don't have too much fu-"

_Kacha._

Marco hung up the phone, before they all collectively decided that it would be a good idea to tease him again.

He took at his DenDen Mushi, feeling slightly bad for its sorry looking state. How long had it been since this thing actually used its vocal chords? Where was this thing even hidden anyway? In some storage room full of unused aging DenDen Mushi? Is that where they went to die?

"Was that Whitebeard you were talking to?" Marco quickly turned, eyebrows attempting to shoot up to his hairline in a rare surprised manner, he hadn't even noticed her come in. Too preoccupied with the conversation -if you could call it that- which he just had with his crew and his current out of nowhere interest in DenDen Mushi. How long had she been standing there? He tried and successfully schooled his expression back into his usual blank stare. Did she hear what they had said? From what he could tell she probably didn't, but then again she could just be pretending she didn't.

"Yea. I was just informing Pops' on what we planned to do." He simply said eyeing her carefully and watching as she busily dried her hair to a manageable dampness. She was already in her sleeping attire which for tonight was a midnight blue nightgown. She really did have too many clothes.

"Ohh… I should probably call Captain too, huh?" She said it more to herself than to him.

"How long have you been there?" He decided to just ask directly.

"Just now." She looked at him strangely, usually he was so observant of everything around him. "Didn't you hear me turn off the shower?"

He shrugged, an unknown weight being lifted from his shoulders.

She lifted a questioning eyebrow at his strange behavior.

Which he just returned with his usual blank stare.

"I hope you plan to get more than three measly hours of sleep tonight, phoenix." She hung her towel on the back of a chair, before lying down on the bottom half of their shared bunk. The bed still smelled of him, sandalwood, citrus, ocean and something else she couldn't describe that was just _him._ "You'll be in charge of fighting off the Sea Kings we come across in the Calm Belt tomorrow."

'_Whose fault is it that I can't sleep?' _He thought.

"And why me?" He lifted a skeptical eyebrow at her.

"Why not you?" She shot back, burying her face in the pillow.

Lifting an eyebrow at her reasoning, he decided against talking back and instead grabbing a book -which the Red-haired pirates supplied when they had given them the ship- from one of the shelves. His eyes quickly reading the title as he moved to sit next to her laying form, the thought that they really needed to invest in some chairs registering somewhere in the back of his mind.

As he sat down and carefully flipped open the cover, Aiko took a small peek at the blonde phoenix commander. He seemed to be interested in whatever it was he was doing, seeing as how his eyes were eating up the words on the pages like they were gospel. It was silent between them, though not the awkward kind, the only sound that could be heard were the natural sounds of the ship accompanied by the soft lull of the rocking waves creating a comfortable ambiance. It was a good feeling, to be able to enjoy the sweet nothing that was silence with another person, no need for hard to interpret words. She briefly wondered just when exactly they had gotten so close as to be able to have moments like these. The thought of her and Marco when they were young and reckless invading her mind.

Back then, they were both old enough to know better, but young enough to do it anyway.

If only it could still be that way.

Grinning to herself, she shrugged that particular thought away, burying it in the recesses of her mind where it belonged and just enjoying the moment without the problems that overthinking was known to create. So what if they got a little close? In the end, they were only together until they dragged that Second Division Commander back to the Moby Dick in the New World, they could afford to waste time with their harmless games of fun.

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time, after all.

She felt a hand rest on the curve of her back, making her attention come back to the phoenix commander she had inadvertently been staring at. Thankfully, he didn't say anything about it and instead talked business.

"Pops' will most likely try to clear up any misunderstandings between Big Mom, at least we're about to leave the New World already," Marco _never _thought he'd ever be able to say '_leaving the New World' _in a positive way. "Those weaklings out in _'Paradise' _won't be much of a match, yoi."

"Don't get too cocky, phoenix." She muttered, resting her head down on the pillow, but with her face still directed towards him. "That was us at one point."

He shrugged, letting his hand run up and down along the curve of her back. He could feel her muscles relaxing under his fingertips.

"Though, I wonder why you never seemed to learn how to dress properly." She said with a grin, sitting up and pointing at his undone purple jacket, showing off his tattooed chest. "Want me to help?"

"I'd much rather you helped me _take _it off, yoi." He gave her a friendly smile. Too friendly.

"It's so much sexier with it on though." She gave him a cheeky grin in return. "Can we keep it?" She made grabbing motions with her hands, as if she were grabbing onto the lapels of his jacket. "Then I can pull you," His eyes found and stared at her full lips as she muttered the last part, "down on me."

She could see his lethargic eyes spring to life with fire for a split second, before being carefully hidden away again behind that indifferent mask.

"Bring it on, yoi." She swore his voice had gone three tones deeper.

What were they doing? Just how many times did they mentally berate themselves about _not _doing this? It wasn't a good idea then and it sure as hell wasn't now. But, those thoughts, as they stared at each other seemed so far away and honestly, right now, they could stay forgotten.

She gave him a smirk full of challenge.

And he sure as hell was going to rise up to it.

But before he could move, the sound of the old, fossil DenDen Mushi rang once again.

_Purupurupurupuru…_

The sound brought them back.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, -coupled with the question as to _why _Pops' was calling, did he have something else for him to do?- Marco wished that the fossil transponder snail had died, because right now with that impossibly perfect timing, it seemed as though some pissed off gods out there didn't want this to happen. How could something that felt this right be so forbidden? It just wasn't fair.

Aiko gave Marco's listless expression a tired smile.

Both of them silently agreeing with their eyes that this never happened.

* * *

_A/N: Heeey, welp... I don't really have all that much to say, except Please Review~!_


	10. Chapter 10

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

Two uneventful weeks passed and they were already in the first half of the Grand Line. _Paradise, _those too weak to make it in the New World called it. That day, Izou had called -unknowingly interrupting the romance the okama wanted so badly to happen- to deliver a message to Marco for them to go and _'visit' _one of the central Marine Bases responsible for moving along information. If anything, Marco thought Pops' was just a bit angry at the Marines for spreading false rumors from the information they somehow always managed to get their corrupt justice filled hands on. Hopefully, while they were there they could find out some information on Ace's whereabouts as well. The man suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth, though thankfully, Aiko had found a lead on Blackbeard seemed the fatso had been spotted in Jaya Island.

So, that's why Marco and Aiko were currently walking down the streets of the extremely hot Summer Island that was Lowe Town. It was a bustling village, full of life. They were in the market area, so people were buzzing around like flies. Men and women shouted, advertising their goods, trying to get some random gullible person to buy worthless junk at insanely expensive prices. Paradise was just how Marco remembered: full of people that didn't know them. Sometimes citizens really were dense, though if they did notice them, they probably just thought that there was no way that the infamous and –according to every newspaper in the world- currently travelling together Whitebeard and Red-haired pirate were there on their island.

Denial was a beautiful thing.

They had been cooped up on the ship for so long, not that he was complaining. He felt better, when he was out at sea. But it was good to have his feet walking on solid ground again and he could see by the skip in Aiko's step that she was glad to be able to have an adventure on an island. Whenever she was like this, it reminded him more of her Red-haired captain. Though seeing the less serious and more relaxed side of her was always nice, the side that didn't put up her guard and didn't tease and test his willpower constantly.

Marco watched as Aiko made a sudden left giving no warning whatsoever to him as she moved away from his protective side to go inside a small antique shop in a dingy back alley. No one was around there, because for one it was a dark ominous looking alley for Roger's sake, the only people that would be dwelling in such a rotten place were the kinds you wouldn't want to be associated with and two, most people tended to avoid antique shops. Why? He would never know. At least you could actually find some genuinely interesting and valuable albeit old stuff in there. Unlike those little side stalls most people seem to just _love_ to waste their perfectly good Beli on. If this whole pirate thing didn't work out, maybe he could have scammed people on the streets, looked simple enough. Marco gave her a head start, taking a moment to watch her hips sway in her usual long dark blue sari-like skirt as she disappeared within the shop.

He mentally counted to ten, before making his move, taking a step into the dirty alley to follow after her. As he entered the shop his listless yet observant eyes did a quick look around, more out of habit than interest in the shops dusty interior, all the goods seemed to have been randomly strewn about, seeing as how there was no real order or _attempt _at some form of organization. Some things were dusty, others new, either way the place looked like it hadn't been cleaned up in a few decades. A brief image of Izou and the okama commander's strange cleaning habits flashed into his mind, he would probably have had a fit before going into one of his infamous frenzied cleaning mode. The okama was oddly clean for a pirate.

Marco shooed the thoughts from his mind. He didn't think he'd be missing his crew this much, he briefly wondered how Ace must feel being out all alone at sea, endlessly searching for Teach. No doubt the fire commander would be having a woman at every port, Whitebeard commanders were heartbreakers that way.

He grinned a bit to himself.

By the time his lazy steps brought him towards the counter of what was actually a pretty big shop or maybe it just looked big from all the junk that could miraculously fit in it, like everything had its own little place, there at the counter was Aiko, back towards him and attention on an old man with an extremely unkempt beard and balding head sat running the store. If this place actually had a shop keep, shouldn't he at least take some time to clean? Then maybe other customers and not pirates like them would actually stop by, even if just to window shop. The old man handed her a long looking item that she quickly paid for, he couldn't see her face but he just _knew _she was grinning happily. Marco hoped she wasn't getting scammed. They still had a lot of money from the fat pouch Shanks' had so generously given, but that didn't mean she could go and waste it.

"Find something interesting, yoi?" He called out, a few feet behind her with that same lazy expression on his face.

"Yea." She confirmed, turning around and showing him a long, elaborate looking belt accessory –thing- it was made of gold. Just how much had she spent? "Pretty cool, huh?"

He shrugged, not really caring.

He wasn't one for needless accessories.

But if it made her happy…

"It was a good price, phoenix." She grinned at his blank eyes. "Half-off, so don't look at me like that. I'm not wasting money, I swear."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Grandpa!"

The three all looked towards the entrance of the shop where a girl came dashing through, obviously not looking where she was going because she ended up bumping straight into the back of one bored looking phoenix commander. Said commander turned his head slightly to raise an eyebrow at the girl who quickly backed up from him with a very prominent blush covering her cheeks.

"I'm s-s-sorr!" She could barely even finish her sentence, before the papers she had been carrying in her hands fell and she scrambled to pick them up.

Crouching down, Marco picked up most of them with smooth movements before handing them back to the girl, who in response blushed madly.

Aiko grinned at the girl, she looked about eighteen, had a short blonde bob cut and she was wearing a large oversized sweater and tights. The girl was cute. Probably the type that loved to daydream. When Aiko saw the girl blush, she couldn't help but let her grin grow just a little wider, the kid –when compared to her age- was totally crushing on Marco.

"Lyka!" The old man at the counter yelled. "Are you alright? Where have you been?"

"Ah!" She quickly stood up, Marco following though at a much slower pace. "Sorry, Grandpa! I was at the library!"

"How many times do I have to tell you to call first?" The old man scolded.

"I'm sorry!" Lyka said in a panicked voice, before her eyes widened and she turned to Marco. "T-th-thank you!"

"No problem." Marco gave the girl a pleasant grin.

"I'm Lyka!" She looked towards Aiko as well, to show that she had acknowledged the older woman in the room and not just her companion. "Are you two customers?"

"Well, I am." Aiko spoke up, friendly smile all Red-haired pirates seemed to have, in place.

"Ah! I'm sorry about that you two! This is my granddaughter Lyka, she's a bit of a klutz, but she means well."

"Grandpa!" The girl yelled, embarrassment clear on her face.

"No worries Gramps." Aiko replied back easily, pointing a thumb at Marco, "It takes a lot more to knock down this guy."

"Thank god for that, no? Is this your boyfriend young Miss?" The old man at the counter asked happily. "Young love really is a spectacular thing." The man continued, not even waiting for a response.

Aiko laughed heartily, the contagious musical sound reaching Marco's ears and like always, had him struggling to hold back a grin. Marco didn't know why she was laughing so much, was it the man's question about them being together? Was it really such a laughable notion?

"Young, huh?" She muttered, but his trained ears easily picked it up. "I don't really think you can count me and this guy there, gramps." The old man looked at her strangely to which she just smiled. "But yes, young love _is _a spectacular thing." She looked pointedly at Lyka, who blushed profusely, noticing her stare. "Anyway," Aiko tugged on Marco's arm to get the man moving. "Thanks, gramps!" She said happily to the stunned old man inside, still left wondering about what she had meant by not being able to count her as young.

Once they left the shady alley that lead to the shops entrance, Aiko turned and stood in front of Marco, placing the elaborate golden belt around the light blue sash he kept tightly tied around his waist.

"There." She finished, smiling up at him.

He was staring at it with his usual expression.

"I'm not one for accessories, yoi." Was his only reply.

"Well," She patted his chest with one gauntlet covered hand. "You don't dress properly either, but you don't see me complaining, so just take the gift will you? I bought it out of the kindness of my heart."

"Kindness? That's news to me. And what possible reason would _you _have to complain about, yoi?" He raised an eyebrow at her. She swore this man took lessons in doing that, he just did it so damn well.

"It tempts me." She said with no shame whatsoever, not caring that some people had actually _stopped_ to try and listen in on their conversation.

He rolled his eyes, a motion that was becoming more and more frequent when she was around. The action had her grin spreading a little bit wider.

He shook his head at her. They were too suspicious around these parts, no matter where they went even if everyone was too dense to recognize them, the duo seemed to gather unwanted attention. It wouldn't do if a Marine on patrol saw them around, it was actually a wonder that they _hadn't _been spotted by one. The Marines had a great information network, but they seriously needed to do something about the incompetence out here in Paradise. Well, not that he was complaining.

"Let's find a pub." He said, eyes already scanning the immediate area for one.

"My, my… Do you want to get me drunk, phoenix?" She teased in a patronizing tone. "Just what do you want to happen, huh?"

He leaned in close to whisper in her ear. "Do you really want to know?"

Aiko was about to respond to his cocky attitude when a voice cut her off.

"Wait!"

The two turned their heads to look at Lyka, who ran out and stopped in front of the duo. She was out of breath from her short run and was panting heavily in front of them.

"Hmm… Watsup?" Aiko asked. "Did we forget something in the store?"

"Ugh.. N-n-no." The young woman waved her hands to and fro as she said this, further confirming her response. "You two are new here, right? W-well I-I-I was actually wondering if you needed a g-g-guide!" She yelled out the last word, her eyes darting up to Marco's pineapple head.

Aiko moved her head, pretending to be thinking it over before addressing Marco. "What do you think, Phoenix?"

He gave a broad shouldered shrug. "Sure, yoi."

The girl lit up at the man's response, before saying happily, "Then where do you want to go first? Ummm…" She let the silent question hang.

"I'm Aiko and this tough guy here is Marco."

"And actually we were about to go to a pub." Marco continued, "Know any good ones?"

"AH! YES!" She pointed left, "Let's go this way, there's one there. But its only 5o'clock, are you sure you don't want to go to an inn first?"

"Well…" Marco shot a look towards Aiko.

"I find it more comfortable to sleep on the ship." She shrugged, the sea lulled her to sleep like no other place could. The ocean was home. "You could go to an inn I suppose." She shot him a wink to which he just responded by rolling his eyes.

"Pub it is then." Marco muttered.

"Alright!" Lyka replied enthusiastically.

* * *

As expected, the pub she had brought them to was actually a pretty decent place, clean, good reputation, the works. Even had a fruity little name like _'Cocktails' _or was it _'Nightshade'?_ Well, whatever. They couldn't tell her that they'd rather go to a back alley watering hole, it would be way too suspicious. Well, even though it wasn't the usual shit hole Aiko would visit to dig up some juicy information, it would have to be good enough. All barkeeps had to know at least a little dirt, right?

She just hoped they wouldn't run into some Marines in such an upstanding place. Well, she doubted Marines would even notice them, pirates just didn't frequent places like this. She didn't know if it just made you look weak or what, leaving some bar for goody-goody citizens. But, not going to these types of bars was some kind of unspoken law for all criminals.

Marco's eyes scanned the immediate vicinity, seeing drunk Marines in one corner. They were totally shit faced and loudly complaining about their boss. He took a seat with Lyka at a corner booth, mostly hidden by shadows as a waitress came to take their orders. He briefly wondered if Lyka was old enough to drink, well, he wouldn't stop her.

"I'll just have some grog and something with meat." He told the waitress who carefully jotted the order down.

"And you, sweetie?"

"I-I'll have a fruit cocktail."

The waitress gave the two a grin before leaving with practiced hips swaying to and fro. Marco saw from the corner of his eye, Aiko, who upon entering the _fine _establishment had immediately opted to ditch the two and go straight up to the bartender. He could see all the eyes directed at the woman, he scoffed to himself, he didn't dress properly? If there was anyone who didn't know how to dress properly, it was her. In fact, all women pirates. He saw her practiced hand sipping sake straight up as she chatted up the bartender, probably already using that sweet alluring voice of hers to have the man cough up information.

"You like sweet drinks, yoi?" Marco asked, to keep up the conversation with Lyka.

"Y-yes. I'm not really good with sake or beer or anything straight." She gave him an embarrassed grin.

"That so?" He muttered lowly, eyes darting once again to Aiko's slender form as she downed another cup of sake. "Maybe you just need to get used to it. It's more of an acquired taste, I suppose."

"Ah… Y-yes." She looked back up at him then cast her eyes down. "Do y-you always say 'yoi' at the end of your sentences?"

He laughed slightly. "It's one of my quirks, yoi."

The waitress came back with their orders and Marco immediately went in to take a large chunk off the meat in a single bite. As expected of a pub out in the open, they had good food. Quality alcohol too, not that cheap watered down stuff.

"Uh… Uhmm…" Marco could see her fidget from where he sat across from her in the booth.

"Hmm?"

"I-Is Aiko-san, you're… Umm…" She let the question hang.

Before he could respond however, Aiko swooped in with a sake bottle in one hand and a small white cup in the other. She sat at the little space next to Marco, who she playfully shoved further inside the small booth to make more room for herself, paying no attention to his personal space.

"Drinking without me, phoenix? I thought we had something special." She gave him a smile.

"Chatting up that bartender, Hon? I thought we had something special."

"I-I-I have to use the b-b-bathroom!" Lyka suddenly announced, standing up and leaving a half-finished cocktail.

"Oh…" Aiko suddenly said, realization crawling on her face. "Did I just interrupt something?"

"Not really." Marco muttered back.

"That girl has the hots for you, ya know?"

'_Well, obviously.' _He was about to sarcastically reply, before he bit his tongue and instead teased, "Jealous?"

She gave him a winning smile. "Obviously."

He couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

"You know I've only got eyes for you, yoi."

"Well, I find it cute that you have an admirer." Aiko said, "Cause in the end you'll still pick me."

God.

Did this woman have to make it sound so cheezy?

"What did you find out?" He asked instead, choosing business instead of adding fuel to whatever fire that sweet comment of hers would get them into.

"Absolutely nothing. The bartender epically failed at trying to flirt a bit with me and I found out that he knew nothing. Nothing about Ace, Blackbeard, not even the Marines on this island. What a waste of time." She frowned plentifully, before giving him an amused grin. "So, I told him you were my husband and you should have seen his face!"

He shot a look towards the bartender, who he found was staring intently at Aiko. But when the man caught his eye he quickly turned and coughed into his hand.

"Anyway," She lowered her voice a bit, "Seems we can just do Whitebeard's _visit _tonight. If this barkeep didn't know anything, the others are probably just as clueless. Even Izou-san sounded pretty amused over the DenDen Mushi."

"Well, they angered Pops', yoi. I'd rather we just take the info and leave peacefully, but they can't just try to get Big Mom against us and think we won't retaliate."

"Yes, yes." She said, "The whole world knows what happens when you mess with one of Whitebeards sons. Especially his number one commander."

He gave her a triumphant smirk. "That's right. Number one."

She rolled her eyes at his response.

Lyka came walking back and sat awkwardly across the two, she felt strangely like the third wheel. But, she couldn't help herself, she had never seen a man who caught her attention so much before and she just had to follow. Call it teenage impulses or whatever, all she knew was that she wanted to get closer to him. But, of course, as with all good men, there was a _girl _in the way. Not that she was angry at the beautiful woman, Lyka could tell why Marco liked her so much or at least why he kept the woman around. She had a certain grace to the way she moved and her presence just demanded your attention. She talked as if she had experienced everything and knew whatever the world had to offer. As expected of an older woman. But, Lyka did have youth on her side, so she would just have to clarify what they were to each other. She really had no intention of breaking them apart, if they were together, she'd leave it, but if they weren't then she had a chance, no matter how miniscule it may be.

"So," Aiko placed her chin in her palm, "How long have you lived around here?"

"All my life." Lyka muttered, "Do the two of you come from nearby as well?"

"Something like that." The older woman gave a mysterious grin. "We're travelling right now. Sightseeing and all."

"Ohh… What do you two do for a living?"

"We run a small tavern back home. Cozy place."

"Haha, with the tattoos, I thought you two might have been pirates or something." Lyka gave a grin, nodding her head towards the large mark on Marco's exposed chest.

"Do you not like pirates?"

"U-uhm… They're scary, I guess? I've never really met one. But, I don't think they're good people. Just what kind of person would choose a life of piracy after all? Becoming an outlaw, purposefully becoming outcasts from society and isolated away from everyone else, I just don't understand how someone would willingly choose that kind of life for themselves and enjoy it, no less." Her eyes widened, catching her tongue before she spoke anymore. "Not that I didn't think you two were bad! It's just-"

She stopped at the amused grin gracing Aiko's features.

"You're quite honest, aren't you?"

Lyka felt the tension somehow rise from the things she had said, had she been too honest and they thought she was weird? Has she shared her opinion too strongly to two people she had just met? She took a peek at Marco, who was quietly drinking his beer, already finished with the rather large serving of food they had given him, even though ten minutes had just barely passed. He didn't seem too interested in what she had been saying and was instead quietly playing with a golden accessory attached to a sash tied tightly around his waist. She recognized the accessory as the most expensive item they had in their shop. But hadn't Aiko-san said that she was the customer? So she had bought it for him then? They really were together?

Lyka unconsciously frowned at her own thoughts.

"Don't frown." Aiko suddenly said, "Being honest isn't a bad thing."

"Ah, no. It's not that."

"Hmm?" She raised an eyebrow.

"N-nothing. Nevermind." Lyka finished up what was left in her small fruit cocktail. She saw that Marco had already downed his grog and that Aiko had long been done with her bottle of sake. Were they waiting for her to finish?

"Thanks for showing us around." Aiko said, grin forever in place as she placed some Beli on the table. Lyka didn't know why, but there was a strange tension in the air that didn't want to dissipate. A huge elephant in the room that only she didn't seem to know just what it was.

"I-It was only the pub." She replied weakly. She looked towards Marco, hoping to get the man to talk once more. "When will you two be leaving? I can take you to an inn or back towards the docks if you'd like."

"No. We've got a few things we need to sort out tonight." Marco replied back, Lyka noticed he still had a bored expression.

"Between the sheets." Aiko said loudly complete with wink at the blonde haired commander, who put a hand on her head and ruffled the woman's hair as if he were dealing with a little kid.

Lyka swore she saw Marco's eyes flash for a split second with what? She didn't know, but she decided against attempting to have his eyes do it again.

"Thanks a lot." Marco told her once more, giving her a friendly grin as they set food outside the pub and were about to go separate ways.

"No problem." She said with downcast eyes, before watching the pair walk away until they faded out of sight.

* * *

"That girl's opinion surprised me." Aiko said with a sigh in her voice. "Only people in Paradise and outside of the Grand Line could think something like that. Makes me miss the New World."

"We'll be back before you know it." Marco replied, lethargic eyes staring straight ahead and posture as relaxed as can be.

"I guess we'll just have to get used to it for the time being, huh?"

"Everybody has something they believe in, yoi."

"I believe I'll have another drink after this little mission."

He grinned.

"We'll have a little toast just for ourselves, what do you say Phoenix?"

"As long as you don't try to come onto me, yoi." Was the immediate response.

"No promises."

"Alright, Hon. It's a date." The two stopped right in front of two thick overly large solid metal doors attached to a huge building, the building itself looked to be about as big as the Moby Dick, which by the way was _huge. _The building had the word MARINES running across the entire thing, even though it was approaching dark, sounds of beeping machines could still be heard from the outside. So, this place really was an information center.

Aiko looked over at Marco, the perfect picture of confident and powerful. His feet were as far apart as his shoulders and instead of his usual lethargic expression he had on a sadistic grin. A grin she hadn't seen since they fought a few weeks back. It made shivers run up her spine.

"Let's get this over with, yoi." Marco said, fingers twitching at the prospect of a fight. Fighting was something he lived for and that would never change. He took a peek at Aiko, who instead of her usual grin had on a serious expression, she was tightening her gauntlets and looked to be sizing the building up and down. She was probably thinking whether entering through the front door or through a wall would be better. This woman really was all brute strength. He should probably be a little concerned about it, brute strength really wasn't striking in a woman. But when they fought, he could clearly remember how attractive she was in her fury. _Especially _in her fury.

"Try not to destroy too much, Phoenix. We need to get some info on that hot-headed commander of yours."

"I'll just give them a little scare." His sadistic grin seemed to widen as he called upon a few flames to surround his body. It made that sadistic expression of his downright disturbing.

"You're creepy, phoenix." She repeated her line from back when they were still in the New World with their respective crews, but it only seemed to egg him on, because he lit even more blue flames. She sighed before looking at the building once more and like a switch had been turned on became freakishly focused on the task at hand. She used her Kenbunshoku Haki to analyze every aspect of the building. There were a lot of Marines, nothing they couldn't handle. But she couldn't pinpoint a well-guarded enough room where they would pass on and receive information. Maybe underground then? Her eyes narrowed at the building in front of her as she began making her way towards it. "I'll take the left, Phoenix. Let's meet in the middle."

"Towards that room with the stairs that leads underground?" He clarified, obviously he had put his own Kenbunshoku Haki to good use.

"Don't be late." She winked at him, before punching right at the metal door, sending the thing flying and dozens of Marines gasping from shock at just what exactly was happening.

"Roger." Marco called loudly over to her, before changing into his Phoenix hybrid form and came crashing down through the ceiling of the Marine base, his talons effectively slicing through reinforced steel like butter.

The sound of guns being loaded were the next thing the two heard, along with only one command:

"F-Fire!"

* * *

_A/N: Well... Yeaaa :D Sorry this is pretty late, I was supposed to have it out a few days ago... but, well, I was trying to fix it up more. Well, this chapter's pretty long, so hopefully it'll make up for its two day lateness... Hahaha ANYWAY, thank you for the reviews, follows and favorites._

_Please people, don't forget to REVIEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW :DDD_


	11. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

"DIE YOU SCUM!"

_**BOOM**_

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"RUUUUN!"

"STOOOP! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS GOING?! DON'T LET THEM THROUGH!"

_**CRASH**_

"PUT OUT THE FLAMES!"

In the depths of the information facilities underground, crashes of large machinery and the panicked screams of fear and pain of what could only be their comrade's desperate attempts at fleeing or stopping whoever it was that had the audacity to infiltrate a Marine Base via the front door could be heard. It pierced the silence, leaving the Marines, in the safety of the underground and its triple solid steel doors, gulping and wondering just what the _hell _was happening up there. None of them spoke, afraid if they did that they'd somehow be heard even in confinement. Their lieutenant had been trying to contact the upper floor for the past ten minutes, but to no avail.

From their mini snail cameras they had seen the giant steel plated front doors of the facility come flying in. Incidentally, flying right at their visual communication and security system, so after everything went off all that was left were the screams of their comrades through the intercoms. Which was useless, because even without the intercoms they could still hear their desperate pleas all the way from their secure little area below the buildings surface. All it did was leave them even more on edge.

The big lieutenant slammed his hand on his table.

"Just what are those useless men doing?! Letting intruders in so casually!"

_Purupurupurupuru…_

All the marines there looked towards the emergency snail quietly ringing.

_Purupurupurupuru…_

"What's going on there? Hello?! Hello?! ANSWER ME!" The Marine Lieutenant, and currently most high ranked officer in the building, yelled into the receiver of the white clad transponder snail.

"SIR!" Some random marine yelled into the receiver from his end, he was out of breath and was obviously scared shitless, "PIRATES! THEY'VE COME TO STEAL INFORMATION!"

"What?! Who?! Don't let them find this place!"

"BUT SIR, YOU HAVE TO TAKE ALL THE VALUABLE INFORMATION AND RUN! WE CAN'T CONTACT OUTSIDE THE ISLAND FOR BACKUP!"

"Are you telling me to abandon my post soldier? HUH?!" The burly man yelled, voice steadily growing angrier at his subordinates audacity. "I'M NOT LEAVING THIS PLACE BECAUSE OF MERE PIRATES!"

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND SIR! THEY'RE-"

_CRACK_

A sickening crack of what could only be multiple bones breaking could be heard before the _kacha _sound of the DenDen Mushi sounded, signaling that the conversation was over, whether he liked it or not. Suddenly, all the screams of their comrades stopped and there was silence once again, the only thing left signaling there was an emergency was the steady flashing of red lights all around their little room.

Then there was the sound of footsteps descending to where they were. There was only one pair of footsteps though, had only one person invaded? No, that was impossible, for only one person to take out all those men. It was probably just a random pirate trying to see what he could loot from down here, well, whatever the reason and whoever it was, this wasn't his lucky day. They'd jump the idiot and squeeze out information or use them as a hostage. Most pirate crews never left their nakama behind, hopefully this crew was one of them.

The lieutenant steadied his sword at his side, before calling out to his men.

"Prepare to make a stand here! We won't let those pirate scum have any information! Information from islands all over the Grand Line runs through this facility, we're going to make them pay! There is no way we'd let scum like that make fools of the government!" He clenched his fists, "Our dignity as Marines of Lowe Town is on the line!"

"YES SIR!" All the Marines saluted to their superior in acknowledgement of the man's orders.

* * *

Aiko stepped on some random marines hand with her heel, effectively breaking his bones as she hung up the DenDen Mushi he had just been talking through.

"Hey, kid." The Marine looked at her with tears welling in his eyes, she could so clearly see the hate directed at her even through all the pain. "Who were you talkin to?"

"DIE YOU SCU-"

With a swift kick to the head, she knocked him out cold. He'd probably suffer amnesia, but that wasn't her problem.

She carefully took a few steps towards a large staircase leading down to probably where they kept all the juicy secrets. She grinned, maybe she'd find something nice to tell Shanks and the crew. Like a devil fruit maybe? Or even some place with super good sake or better yet, a paradise island! They'd definitely love it. Maybe they'd even have like a compilation of pirate pictures that they kept just for their tabloid articles! She hoped they did, it would be like a photo album that she could use as blackmail. Maybe they had one for each of the Yonko! Before going down she suddenly felt Marco's presence from above her and let out a smile as she turned to face the blonde man.

"Hahahaha!" Aiko laughed loudly, the sound ringing in Marco's ears as he smoothly descended to where she was standing in front of the large staircase leading underneath the Marine base. He landed effortlessly next to her in a crouch, flames still dancing all over his body. "I win, phoenix." She gave him a triumphant smirk.

He flashed her a few papers in his hands, "Because I actually got some useful info, yoi."

She stuck out her tongue at him.

"Excuses, excuses." She shrugged her shoulders, "Besides there was nothing useful on my end. Just a bunch of talk about a few islands outside the Grand Line and some old newspapers, nothin' interesting. Not even anything about pirates."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Were not here to have fun, yoi." His eyes looked down the long flight of stairs. "Just what exactly do you want to find anyway?"

"You're the one with the sadistic grin." She muttered under her breath, but his trained ears still picked it up as he flared up his flames once more to highlight the contours of his body in what she always described as 'creepy'. "Stop that."

She frowned cutely at him. He didn't know how a woman in her age could still be described as cute, or maybe it was only in his eyes she was? Whatever the reason, he couldn't think of any other word to describe the expression she had on her face.

"And here I thought you liked my flames." He teased.

"_Yes. _The _flames_. Not the way it lights up your body." She motioned with one gauntlet clad hand to, just… all of him.

"I like the way it lights up yours." He shot back right away.

"Were not here to have fun, yoi." She mimicked his words, making him frown.

"Oi, oi." His eyes looked annoyed to her, "That's my thing, yoi."

"Li-ar." She said slowly, clearly pronouncing each syllable and letting the word roll off her tongue.

He rolled his eyes at her, an action that was unfortunately starting to become a norm for him. He was about to throw back a response to her nonsense, but she interrupted him.

"I don't really want to find anything in particular." She then said, answering his previous question in her usual naturally alluring tone, he could tell right away she was lying, because she had a mischievous grin on her face.

"Liar."

Her grin stretched from ear to ear at his remark, it was fun like this. When all they did was throw words back at each other. She hoped it could always be like this because he was getting a lot more playful recently, probably because he didn't have to constantly worry about his mates and the fact that their crews were _enemies_. But… this would have to end someday, it wasn't really a day she was all that looking forward to.

"Whatever you say, phoenix." Aiko looked down the long flight of stairs, "I wish Captain were here." She muttered, catching the Whitebeard commander's attention, "I could really use a drink."

He shook his head at her, no, not just her, the entire Red-haired crew's devil may care, party loving attitude. Then again, that little laidback habit of hers was probably the reason he met her in that third-rate excuse for a bar in the first place, so he wasn't too upset about it. If anything, he was glad he hadn't chosen a better looking place, because that was a very lucky night. For the both of them.

"Marco." His eyes instantly, as if on instinct, went to meet hers at the rare sound of his name leaving her lips, she couldn't just call him that out of nowhere with no warning whatsoever, just how did she expect him to focus on his duties? "What's the plan?"

'_For Roger's sake...' _Marco thought, _'Which God did I piss off to deserve this kind of torture?'_

He felt as if his soul was slowly committing suicide as he looked at her honey colored eyes, asking what he wanted to do next.

* * *

All the Marines were on edge as they shook with anticipation due to the sounds of footsteps steadily coming closer and closer. Then in a flash, the footsteps were gone and instead, the sound of the metal door, that they thought would at least give them a few minutes of preparation, snapped with an ear piercing screech as it came flying straight at one unfortunate Marine, completely flattening him against the wall.

They all gulped once more, the Lieutenant though, unfazed and kept his gaze unnervingly straight at the woman who had just walked into view with a hand on her hip and a smirk adorning her features.

Everyone's eyes widened at their guest.

"Ah!" She suddenly gave an apologetic at the same time bashful face that looked a lot like the kind Red-haired Shanks would suddenly give in the stupidest of times. One gauntlet covered hand rose to scratch at a slightly blushing cheek. "I knocked too hard."

"EHHHHH?!" The marines yelled.

"Killer Punch Aiko, huh?" The lieutenant said clearly, making her attention shift to him. She didn't look too troubled about the fact that she was only one person. His subordinates' faces were all surprised at the big shot pirate in front of them, what the hell was she doing here? If she was here then was it really possible that she took down the entire base on her own? But, no, wasn't she supposedly travelling with the renowned Whitebeard First Division Commander? It was all over the news. Hopefully, they had split up. It would be a problem if two of them were here.

"MEN!" He yelled in a commanding voice, "Don't be fooled by her appearance! She's a high ranking criminal, but in the end she's only one person! Don't let her escape!"

"AHHH!" They roared out a battle cry and all simultaneously loaded their guns and took out an array of weapons, even their bulky, completely ripped superior drew out his overly large sword from its sheath in a sluggish movement that had Aiko wondering how slow this big guy was. She had almost forgotten the huge, almost unreal, difference between the Marines in _Paradise _and the ones in G-5. She sighed to herself, she really missed the New World. There was just no other place like it. There was a reason after all, why Shanks who loved to travel all the seas usually stayed in the New World. It was just, so much more _fun _there. As her mind wandered for a bit, the three men closest to Aiko were the first to move, quickly charging at her with swords drawn and fully prepared to seriously injure the unmoving, carefree woman.

She surveyed around her with a quick scan of her eyes, but in the end didn't bother with moving because just at the last second when the three were about to hit her with their blades, Marco appeared in beautiful blue flames, hands landing on her shoulders as he did a perfect hand stand on her that made her crouch down, making the three Marines swords effectively slice through his hybrid phoenix body. Where even after the clean cut, there wasn't even a mark on his tanned skin.

"Just who do you think you were about to cut, yoi?" Marco said menacingly to the three, his bored eyes flashing with an unspoken threat, before pushing off of Aiko's shoulders and giving the three a barrage of talon enhanced kicks.

All the Marines seemed to have forgotten how to move when they caught sight of the infamous duo. None had thought that they'd actually see the two pirates that just by travelling together made headlines all over the world. Made the government and Yonko edgy enough to think something huge was happening. At least, not in this lifetime they didn't.

Aiko slowly stood up from her forced crouch due to Marco's flashy entrance, dusting off her shoulders and tightening her gauntlets.

"You okay?" Marco asked, lethargic eyes not leaving the Marines gaping around him.

"Peachy." She replied, sarcasm oozing from her voice. "Let's finish up here, phoenix. I've got a date."

His sadistic grin immediately flew back into place.

"PHOENIX MARCO! YOUR HEAD IS MINE!"

Suddenly, the bulky lieutenant came charging towards Marco, who Aiko saw was actually pretty quick on his feet, maybe his hands were just slow? The man's intent to kill was aimed right at Marco. Not that the man's aura or weapon raised in the air meant to cut his head clean in two bothered him, the blonde haired commander had his hands in his pockets and was even smirking smugly at the man, as if just amused at him even _attempting_. As the man let out another battle cry and was about to bring his sharp weapon down on the overconfident phoenix commander, he stopped. The top of his head suddenly bleeding, Marco looked up to see Aiko crouched down on the large man's big head. Getting a rather sickening view of her fist covered in Armament Haki effectively collided with the top of the man's what was once round skull, before she jumped off as gravity brought the lifeless lieutenant's body down.

She turned and looked back at him with a smirk on her face.

His sadistic grin grew.

He'd definitely have to arrange a rematch soon.

"AHHHHH!"

"LIEUTENANT!"

Then, there was chaos once more.

* * *

Marco and Aiko were currently racing each other across the town and back to the docks at full speed. Aiko, jumping on rooftops while Marco flew in his hybrid form in the beautiful night sky. His flames were more beautiful than the stars as he practically shone in the dark. Some citizens, who were still out that is, saw the two happily running by with huge grins on their faces. They only saw them for a moment, just a fleeting glimpse at their amused expressions before their inhumane speeds propelled them away from their visions. In the background, yells could be heard and there was a panic because the Marine base centered on the island had apparently caught fire and was supposedly trashed by some robbers on the island. But none assumed it was them, at least Aiko didn't think they did, because right now the two looked like any other couple having a late night out of fun and grinning wildly.

No one would know they had totaled the place until they were long gone.

Lyka who had had her nose stuck in a book caught a brief glimpse of the two as they passed the dingy antique shop, her eyes instinctively following the trail of blue flames that seemed to be succeeding the two in a wave. Or was that just her imagination? She quickly ran and tried to keep up with the two, noticing that Marco was _flying_ and that the blue flames were not her imagination. At all. The two seemed to be bickering about something as they kept their steady pace, she tried calling out their names to grab their attention away from each other but to no avail. Lyka noticed though that they were heading for the docks and so she ran with all her might there. Eyes never leaving their trail even as they left her line of sight. Those two were like a completely different species of human, there was no way she believed that they just ran some small time pub, like Aiko-san had said. Not when she had just seen Marco _flying _through the air and her jumping on rooftops as if that were normal.

She had never in all her eighteen years, met two people who seemed so… _free. _She couldn't really explain it, they just moved a certain way that made you interested in them. There was a certain appealing aura to the two, though each was very different and alluring in their own ways, but when they were together things just seemed to get _brighter. _Like two stars had come into proximity. Aiko-san's presence even without meaning or even willing to, demanded your full attention, your eyes would just naturally follow her. It was something Lyka was a little envious of, because no one seemed to be exempt from it, not even Marco. Not even her. While Marco's presence on the other hand… She clenched her fist, cheeks burning profusely at the thought of her first love. Shaking her head and pushing her legs to run even faster towards the docks, it felt as if this would be the last time she'd get to see the two. She didn't know why, usually people wouldn't leave so late in the night, right? But when she got there, the only ship tied up was a small rowboat used by the local fishermen. The duo nowhere to be found. If they had a ship, then no doubt they would be at the docks, right?

Realization suddenly dawned on her. The tension in the pub, the yells she was hearing in the distance that she mistook for a passing troupe, the tattoos and the fact that the ship they had supposedly arrived on wasn't in the docks where it could so easily be seen. She quickly turned, dropping her book in the process and running towards a small rocky coast west of the island. Not ideal for a merchant ship, but the perfect place to hide a pirate one. When she arrived there, panting and out of breath with shaky and unbelievably tired legs, there it was. A medium sized ship and the voices of the two people she was chasing so relentlessly after.

"Y'know Tofu is so tiny, it's annoyed me since day one. Especially compared to our main ships." Aiko said loudly, two large sake bottles already in hand, preparing for their little banquet as she walked jovially on the deck of the ship and unfurled its main sail with the simple pull of a rope. "But it's a good ship." She said the last part fondly, smoothing her hands over the rails with care.

"Tofu?" Marco questioned, "Hon, are you really naming our ship Tofu?" He was seriously questioning her taste in names.

"Got a problem?" She looked down at him with an eyebrow raised, he was standing on the coast getting ready to push the ship out into the ocean.

He just grinned in return, before giving _Tofu_ a firm push. Aiko could clearly see his muscles flexing in his open jacket as he effortlessly pushed the whole ship back into the ocean, his sandaled feet getting wet by the small waves. He took a moment to enjoy the feel of the sea, even if it somewhat drained his energy, being away from the ocean for the entire day was too long of a damn time. Living freely surrounded by nothing but the constant push and pull of the waves –even if it could potentially kill him- had always been a dream of his, he looked at Aiko who was motioning for him to get up there with her already by teasingly dangling the two large sake bottles at him with an excited grin on her face.

Things really were better when she was around.

As he was about to fly up to her and have their promised and hard-earned drink, he turned abruptly when he sensed someone.

"Marco! Aiko-san!" Lyka called, blonde head coming out from behind an oversized tree. She was out of breath and upon closer inspection had been running in fuzzy green slippers. "Please wait!"

"What are you doing here, yoi?"

She seemed to be struggling to catch her breath, as she brought her hands to her knees and panted loudly, before saying in the loudest voice she could muster, "I'm sorry about what I said! I'm not afraid of pirates anymore!"

Aiko and Marco grinned at her words. Both wondering what her expression would be when she found out just who they actually were and what they had done there in their short visit. "You two are really amazing, please come visit me again! GOODBYE!"

"It's not goodbye, yoi." Marco said with a grin.

"Eh?" She asked.

"It's see you soon!" Aiko clarified beaming, raising the bottles in her hand to the young girl who smiled brightly back. Lyka could see probably one of the many reasons why Marco's eyes always followed her now, Aiko's smile was dazzling as it stretched from ear to ear. The kind that made you want to be the reason for it.

"Yes!" Lyka exclaimed with tears in her eyes. Without thinking, she quickly ran up to Marco who was still on the shore and grinning charmingly at her and all in one swift movement. Pulled him down by his purple jacket and pressed her lips firmly against his in an unexpected kiss.

_**EH?**_

Marco's eyes widened, for once –in a long time- not because of a certain Red-haired pirate, as he instinctively moved to push the way too young for him girl away, but she kept her hands firmly on the lapels of his jacket, obviously very into the surprise kiss and wanting him to respond, it was probably her first. Only one thought seemed to run through his mind though and at an alarmingly fast rate at that, he didn't question as to why it did, he didn't want to have to deal with those kinds of extra thoughts _plus_ the young teen currently holding his lips hostage.

_Why in front of Aiko, yoi?!_

Just when he was about to use more force to push her away, he felt the extremely painful sting of a bottle shattering on his head. The sudden impact made Lyka pull away from the phoenix commander with blushing cheeks and wide eyes. Marco could smell, even _taste, _the sake running down his face and drenching his clothes and bare skin. The pair's eyes immediately going up to a grinning Aiko with her chin in one hand and in the other only one bottle of sake.

"Oops." She said innocently, grin still forever glued to her face, though, to Marco at least, it looked way too threatening to be real. "My hand slipped."

"A-Ah!" Lyka's face exploded in red before she bowed to Marco. "I'm so sorry!"

"Eh?" Marco removed the shards of glass and sake from his head and now soaked hair, running his blue flames across the top just in case the bottle had cut him. "Ah, don't worry about it, yoi." He looked up at Aiko, who narrowed her eyes slightly at him before closing them completely and turning her head away.

He grinned slightly.

Something Lyka's eyes caught as the man before her stared after the pouting woman on the ship, her dark hair spilling over in waves. She really didn't mean to get her mad at him, she just saw the chance and took it. She doubted she'd be able to see the man again anytime soon, and by then she might even be married. Marco, before her eyes let out a mixture of beautiful blue and red flames that could only be from a Devil's Fruit. So he ate one of those cursed fruits, huh? She wondered if Aiko did too, maybe that's how she kept herself looking so young.

The blonde haired commander landed gracefully next to the woman, who blatantly ignored his presence.

"We'll see you again!" Aiko was the first to call, grin back in place and waving at Lyka.

"I'll see you soon!" She correctly yelled this time. The two waved at her as the strong wind brought them further and further away from Lowe Town. When they were a good distance off, they stayed quiet. None wanting to break the serene silence that had settled. The ship was peacefully rocking back and forth, _Paradise_ was calm tonight. It was just one of those nights, even after all the events, where you'd sit down, have a drink, stare at the ocean and talk about trivial things that meant the world.

Aiko thought briefly of her Captain and crew. How they'd all be partying until they were completely shit faced and woke up with terrible hangovers that they'd just get rid of with more booze. How Benn would be scolding the Captain for his random whims, how Roux would be offering her plates upon plates of meat, how Yasopp would be going on and on about his son and how her Captain would have his arm around her shoulders as he ruffled her hair and made her chug bottle after bottle of sake with him. Her honey colored irises shone with unshed tears, when was the last time she'd been separated from them for such an extended period of time? It was like a piece of her was missing.

_Family… huh?_

Aiko shook her head, before turning to the phoenix commander next to her who also seemed to be lost in thought. No doubt thinking about his own crew, being separated, really wasn't a good feeling.

"Cheating on me right in my face, phoenix?" Aiko suddenly mumbled with one questioning eyebrow raised at him, he could see the stars illuminating her pale skin coupled with the sparkling ocean, making him let out a sigh as he momentarily forgot thoughts about his crew and willingly let his head be consumed by her.

At least they weren't alone on this mission.

He met her eyes, thinking, just what kind of shitty luck did he have that something like _that _had to happen in front of her?

"Never, yoi." He replied seriously.

"Hmm…" She stared out at the deep blue sea, before popping open the sake bottle and taking a hearty swig. "You hurt my feelings." She pouted at him, tossing him the sake bottle which he caught effortlessly.

"If I was able to hurt you, then it's probably love right?" He responded instantly before taking a few gulps of hot sake, this was good stuff. He noticed that it was colder than usual out tonight. He could feel the cool evening wind biting mercilessly against his exposed skin.

"Please, Phoenix. Love is a lottery for pirates." She grinned at him as he tossed her back the bottle.

"Then I can't wait to draw your name."

'_What are you doing, dumbass?' _His inner self reprimanded.

And for once, she didn't have a snarky remark for him. She gave him a grin, the kind she once gave him a life time ago when he first approached her in that bar, looking for nothing but a good time with a woman. Any woman would've done. But then he saw her there, presence too alluring to ignore. She interested him and so he singled her out and quickly made his move.

If only he could still do that now.

'_You're stunning.' He said as he walked up to a slender woman with a bottle of sake in one hand and her delicate face resting in the other. Her honey colored irises looked at him as if she were sizing him up and when she finished up her once over and mentally approved, only then did she reply to his words._

'_Wow. Because I'm the only one you've ever said that to.' She replied sarcastically back at him, all bite._

'_I've never actually meant it before.' He grinned at her. He was having second thoughts about this dingy back alley bar, but it seemed it was a good idea after all._

'_So you admit you're a liar?' She raised a questioning eyebrow at him._

'_I wouldn't want to lie to you, better to get it out early, yoi.'_

He flashed her a grin in response to hers and motioned for the bottle which she casually threw back.

"Alright, Phoenix." She stretched her arms above her head. "Shall we go over the info we got?"

He sighed, they were out here for Ace after all, he couldn't really just say no. Well, then again, they were treading on dangerous territory, so maybe this work distraction would be good. Yea, planning their next course of action over a drink would do them both good. And in the end, it would cool their heads. Saving them from going head first into the gutter.

"I'll go grab another bottle first." He replied with a lopsided grin.

* * *

_A/N: Hey, this chappie's pretty long, so anyway, what did you guys think, huh? :D_

_**Alice:** Welp, you were right about her showing up again :D_

**_Please review._**


	12. Chapter 12

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

Thunder roared and rain beat on the ships wood like bullets as they approached an Autumn Island. If there was one thing better about Paradise, it was that when the weather begins changing you at least know for sure what kind of island you're close to. In the New World, even if it suddenly starts snowing you might just end up on a Summer Island or even worse an island that was constantly attacked by lightning. Like the people there weren't problems enough, what with everyone's superhuman strength, then they had to worry about the constant weather too. But, after living in the New World for a while, she knew of no one that didn't want to stay there, its harsh conditions were home. Unlike this unexciting place, it was no wonder people called the first half _Paradise. _It was practically smooth sailing.

They'd be stopping by the next island only for an hour at most, to pick up supplies and the like. Because they'd be going straight for Jaya Island, where Teach had been spotted stuffing his fat face with dozens of cherry pies. They were heading there, in the hopes that they'd catch Ace who was on Teach's trail like a rabid bloodhound on steroids. Because seriously, he had to be on something right? The man's body was even more perfect than Marco's, she didn't even know that was possible. To put it simply, if there was anything she had heard about Fire Fist Ace, it was that the pyro commander was hot… and not his temperature. She thought more about Jaya Island, there wasn't really anything particularly interesting about the place and even if they did miss the freckled man there, his Vivre Card was pointing in that general direction anyway, so they'd end up passing Jaya Island whether they liked it or not, might as well stop to take a look. Who knows, they might get some useful info or even meet someone interesting.

Aiko yawned slightly as she lay comfortably in bed, -she had claimed the bottom bunk for the day- having just awoken from her afternoon nap and not wanting to face the world and its shit storm yet. Literally. The rain was beating down relentlessly, it was probably a good thing the ship was made of top grade wood and was reinforced with steel or else they'd be having some serious leakage problems and she wasn't really much of a shipwright.

"Evening, yoi." She looked over at Marco who had just come in fresh from a shower. Drying his damp blonde hair with a towel in all his shirtless, tanned and sculpted glory.

"Phoenix." She greeted, turning her body towards him, but still not even attempting to get up from her lying position. "How long have I been sleeping?" Aiko looked out of the small circular window that instead of the usual breathtaking ocean view, it only provided a blurry, foggy reflection of the ship from the incessant droplets of rain.

"Hmm? A few hours, yoi." His eyes followed hers to where she was, in vain, trying to see through the window, "It's been like that for a while, we're already near the next island." He hung the towel he had been using on the back of a nearby chair that for some inexplicable reason was never used by the two occupants of the room except for hanging wet towels.

"Mmm… Supply run again, huh?" Aiko grunted into the pillow below her, "Makes me miss the newbies on the ship."

He smirked.

He knew the feeling, it had been such a long time since he himself went out to actually go and haggle with greedy shopkeepers for supplies. He'd usually be the one barking out orders to the rest of the crew, who would get what, what they urgently needed and what they needed to cut down on. Now that he thought about it, wasn't he only supposed to do those things for his division? He wondered how they were doing without him there, no doubt running around wondering why their supplies were running dangerously low, especially their alcohol supply. Pirates drank a lot of grog, everyone knew that, but with a huge crew like the Whitebeard Pirates and the ridiculous amount of alcohol they consumed in a day, he had no doubt that they wouldn't know exactly how much to buy with him not there to help. Well, they could suffer with no alcohol for a few days before he'd call them up and tell them exactly how much they need to buy to last, they deserved this for ganging up and teasing him the other day.

Actually, now that he thought about it more, if there were no pirates then most alcohol establishments around the world would probably be in the poor house. He swore they were keeping their pockets lined with Beli.

"You sleep well?" Marco suddenly asked, grabbing today's newspaper from the table and moving to sit next to her on their shared bunk.

"Mmmmmm…" She just mumbled in reply as she sat up, smoothing the back of her bed head in an annoyed manner, "I hate Autumn Islands. Especially when it rains this much."

He just absent mindedly nodded his head as he thumbed through the different headlines of the newspaper, searching for one that caught his eye. Strawhat was in the news again, seems Ace's little brother was gaining fame, his brother had the same stupidly huge grin, but his eyes seemed a little bit slower when compared to Ace. But, the headline for the day was them once more. That's just how it was when you were well-known pirates, no matter what the accomplishment of some other less famous pirate was, if you were a big shot in the pirating world and you did something as trivial as accidentally stubbing your toe on some random table in a furniture shop, those pesky reporters would be all over you in a heartbeat. Placing you on the headline as if you weren't human like everyone else. Though, in this case, Marco supposed that what they did was front page material worthy.

_Phoenix and Killer Punch Spotted Again._

_Marco the Phoenix and Killer Punch Aiko, the unlikely duo that had been reportedly travelling together for unknown purposes seem to have completely destroyed a Marine facility on Lowe Island, leaving little to no survivors. It was said that the pair was looking for certain documents, what documents exactly and whether they actually found what they were looking for, there is no way to know for sure as they had quickly fled the scene with only destruction in their wake._

Marco looked at the picture printed next to the vague article, it was of the Marine Base they had _visited, _well, at least what was left of it.

"Anything interesting, Phoenix?" Aiko asked, taking a peek at what he had been reading so intently, "Ah! News travels fast." She grinned.

He nodded slightly, before giving her his usual blank stare and saying, "We'll probably reach the next island in a few hours. I think I'll give Pops' a call, yoi. Tell him the information we got from that sorry excuse for a base."

"Alright. I'll give Captain a call too, I think he'd be interested in what I found."

He only nodded again, before taking out a small baby DenDen Mushi that had the Whitebeard symbol on it and a miniature cape. Marco didn't really feel like talking through that old fossil of a transponder snail, its appearance distracted him too much. Getting up with the baby transponder snail gently sleeping in the palm of his hand, he took four long, but lazy strides out of the room, so they could both have some privacy. That, and he didn't really want Aiko to hear the teasing of his mates.

Aiko watched him leave, before getting up and going over to the two large DenDen Mushi on the table. Going over to the Shanks version and dialing the number.

_Purupurupu—_

_Kacha._

"AIKO!" Shanks' voice came out through the receiver she was holding at arm's length, fully prepared for her Captain's endless yelling. As expected of her childish Captain, to pick up the phone even before the second ring. What the hell was he doing? Sleeping with the damn snail, waiting for her call?

"BENNIE, ROUX! COME OVER HERE! IT'S AIKO!"

"GWAHAHAHA!" She could make out the many members of her crew laughing on the other end as they all began talking at the same time, as if she could talk to all of them at once.

"Yo, Ai! How's life with a Whitebeard Pirate? I bet you miss us now, huh?" She could clearly identify that as Yasopp.

"We miss you a lot Aiko! Hurry up and come back, we'll have a party!" That was most definitely Roux.

"AIIIIKOOO-CHAAAN~~~" Rho.

"Oi, oi. She called to report." Benn said in his ever calm voice, trying to get the rowdy crew under control.

"Aiko we-"

"Come back-!"

"Having fun with the first division comm-"

"Stop, love struck idiot. She probably won't even recognize your voi-"

"OI! Watch where you're goi-"

"AHAHAHAHA!" She heard Shanks' laughter booming above everyone, his voice drowning out all the rest. He was probably still the one holding the receiver, since she could hear him so clearly. His voice took on a fonder tone, "Is everything alright there Aiko?"

"Yea." She waved a hand, not like they could see it. She could just imagine the looks her crew had on right now. Hell, she missed them. "We've found some info on Teach, hopefully we'll see Ace on Jaya Island, but if not then we could ask around again."

"Jaya Island, huh?" Shanks recalled the place, he hadn't been in Paradise for years. "Hey Bennie, they had some pretty good sake there, huh? Bring us home some will ya, Aiko?"

She could just imagine the stupidly large grin he had on right now. "No way, Captain. I'd rather drink it myself."

"**EHH?!**" Shanks lost it, losing his emotions like the man child he was. "That isn't fair Aiko! Where are you now, huh? We'll go get you ourselves, then we can have a banquet in Paradise!"

"Oi, oi, Captain." Yasopp interrupted, "She probably doesn't want to see us. Since, Aiko's with her lover after all."

Aiko's eye twitched at Yasopp's words. That bastard. He was definitely taking advantage of the fact that she wasn't there to throw something at him.

"WHAT?! OI, AIKO!" Shanks screamed once more in a surprised, but at the same time scolding tone, she didn't even know how that was possible. If there was anything that could be said about Red-haired Shanks, it was that the man had one hell of a pair of lungs on him. "DON'T GO LETTING THAT FILTHY PIRATE TOUCH YOU."

Oh, so now he was filthy? Aiko grinned, hadn't a mind-blown Shanks just a few weeks ago, asked that _filthy_ pirate to join his crew and become nakama?

"YES!" Her grin broke out into a full-blown smile as she heard Rho's loud agreement to her Captain's words, "IF THAT GUY COMES NEAR YOU, I'LL PERSONALL-"

_CRASH._

What the hell was that?

"Yea, yea." She now heard Roux, the man probably hit the doctor over the head with his ever present meat and sent him flying into a nearby rail, Lucky really didn't keep watch of how much strength he put into his hits sometimes. "He means, have fun, Aiko-chi."

"NO LUCKY! THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN!" Even without being there, she could imagine Shanks' hands on his head and eyes wide as if someone had just died before his very eyes. "HE'LL TAKE HER AWAY! LIKE IT SAYS ON THE PAPERS! THAT MARCO WILL TAKE HER AWAY TO ELOPE AND-"

"Anyway," Aiko interrupted Shanks' tirade of panic from his overactive imagination. "I found something interesting for you guys to do." She tried to keep her voice as even as possible to get his interest. "An adventure."

"Hmm?" She could tell she had Shanks' attention now because he calmed down and went from epically wild little kid to freakishly focused adult in the span of half a second. "What's up Aiko? Must be hard out there on your own."

She knew he really wanted to know now. He was always like this, small talking in that kind and friendly way of his, so you'd tell him whatever it was he wanted to know.

"A devil fruit in the New World." She took a moment to grin and slowly build up the suspense before continuing, "On a paradise rum-filled beach island."

"SERIOUSLY?!" The whole crew excitedly yelled at the same time.

* * *

Marco, who was seated in the small mess hall connected to their kitchen, well more like dining table, since it couldn't really be considered a mess hall because of its small size. He stared unwaveringly at his mini DenDen Mushi. He could hear the shouts of the Red-Haired crew all the way there, even through the thick wooden walls of the ship. That DenDen Mushi Aiko was using would probably die early from extreme use of its poor vocal chords. He sighed a bit, envying how she could call her crew so easily. He needed to have a mental debate with himself first as he just imagined the amount of teasing his mates would throw his away.

Schooling his expression to his usual bored one, he punched in the number of the Whitebeard ship.

_Purupurupurupuru…_

_Purupurupurupuru…_

_Purupurupur—_

_Kacha._

"Marco." Pops' deep and steady voice came out.

"Pops', yoi." He started, "We've got a lead."

Good. He couldn't hear any other voices in the background meaning Pops' was most likely alone somewhere, hopefully in his room. Far away from any of the crew.

"Get Ace back, Marco. I have a bad feeling." Whitebeard said it in a voice mixed with worry and displeasure, to others it may have sounded normal. But, Marco had been with Whitebeard for years and clearly knew that the revered strongest man in the world was feeling anxious. Anxious for his son. "Pick up a few Devil Fruits or anything else you may find interesting there, Marco."

"Roger." He muttered, letting the weight of the mission rest heavily on his shoulders. In truth, he was actually brimming with barely restrained fury, hiding it behind his cool, composed, indifferent mask. He was absolutely livid. Filled with anger, anger at Teach and what he did to Thatch, anger at the Marines for taking advantage of the situation to bring Big Mom upon them, anger at himself for not realizing Teach's true nature. He wanted to let out all this fury. The fury of an enraged brother.

Just… Not _now._

He shook his head slightly, clearing his mind. He was never one to let any type of emotion rule over his decisions. Especially not anger. People make bad judgment calls when mad and that was something he couldn't afford to do as the first division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates.

He let out a breath, he'd make sure to give Ace a solid haki enhanced kick to his grinning freckled face the next time he saw him. "Oh, Pops', we trashed up that base like you asked. I doubt the Marines will be spreading any rumors about us to Kaido or Big Mom anytime soon, yoi."

"GUHAHAHA! That was good work, I see though you're still attached to the hip with that woman." Marco kept his lethargic expression, but on the inside he frowned slightly. He was feeling lucky that none of his other mates were around but did Pops' really have to tease him about it too? "She seems like good company for you, Marco."

The Phoenix commander closed his eyes as he answered in a lower tone than usual, as if she'd hear him if he spoke any louder. "Seems so."

"Take care of her, Red-hair will be at our necks if something happens to the woman." He just_ knew_ his Pops was grinning widely. "Watch out for yourself, son."

He smirked. A smirk of pure confidence. "Like any of these weaklings out here in _Paradise _stand a chance against a Whitebeard Pirate, yoi."

"GUHAHAHAHA!" Whitebeard's laugh bellowed, the sound echoing in the mini mess hall Marco had secluded himself in. "Let loose and wreak havoc out there in my name, my son! It's been too long since you left my side. Enjoy your time with her while you search, Marco. You've been given the chance to travel with a rival pirate as nakama. I can guarantee you there won't be another."

Marco sighed slightly. Just what exactly was his Pops' getting at?

"OI! MARCO!"

Wait.

That voice was…

"How's the sex?"

Sixth Division Commander Blamenco.

'_Damn.'_

"Oi, uncouth bastard." Haruta, twelfth division commander and only actual commander that was a girl yelled at him. Seems the commanders had gathered, no doubt Pops' had probably called for them. He sighed and mentally steeled himself for what was definitely about to come.

* * *

"Phoenix!" Aiko searched the corridors as she called out to him, but the man wasn't responding at all to her continuous calls. She looked out the window, seeing that the rain had died down to a light drizzle and the sun was now showing off its beautiful rays as it faded into the background. Some stars were already quickly becoming visible. She quietly opened the door to the kitchen, eyes immediately eating up the blonde commander who was busy bantering with some of his mates who seemed to be laughing happily, even though the man himself had kept on his usual apathetic expression, as if he was completely disinterested in what his mates were saying. The fact that he was still there listening to the steady stream of voices that flowed out of the transponders snails' mouth was the only sign that he actually gave a shit about his mates' words.

"I'm the first division commander, Marco the Phoenix, yoi." He said smugly into the receiver. "It takes a lot more than that."

"Oh?" She could recognize the voice that responded as _Speed _Jill's and she could make out conversation in the background identifying the voices of some of the different commanders, "Killer Punch must be pretty amazing then, huh? To conquer you."

He _tsk_ed lightly. "Don't get cocky, yoi. I can still kick your ass."

"Phoenix!" Aiko called out to him again, louder now. Making him turn towards her slightly. "I can see the island, Phoenix. You almost done?"

There was silence, before:

"OOOHHHH!" She could clearly recognize the voice of Izou, the okama commander seemed to have fun constantly teasing the others of his rank. "Is that Aiko-chan? How are yo-"

_Kacha._

Marco hung up the phone, before letting the okama commander speak any more than he already had. She took a moment to look at Marco with a raised brow then another to stare down at the small baby snail that was gasping for breath from many voice imitations it had done before she burst out laughing.

"Hahahahaha! What the hell, Phoenix? Afraid they'd tell me some of your embarrassing secrets?" She teased.

"Shut up, yoi." He muttered, in one of his rare irritated moods as he scratched the back of his head.

"Touchy, touchy, pineapple head." She stuck her tongue out at him and in a flash he was in her face, catching her off guard as he quickly wrapped a strong hand around her middle, bent and threw her over his shoulder, all in one fluid motion. As if he threw women over his shoulder every minute of every day. She noticed he had quickly started walking out onto the deck, pace not at all hindered by her added weight. "Oi, haha. Chill now, don't throw me overboard." Her voice was slightly panicked, "I was joking, Marco. **JOKING**."

When he wasn't responding nor _stopping_, she started flailing her limbs, gauntlet enclosed hands balled into fists and hitting his back with haki infused smacks that would have sent any lesser man crumbling to the floor in worlds of pain. But he didn't even flinch any time she'd hit him. Her eyes quickly saw his blue flames flicker over after every blow or two and heal him completely.

Damn, this flaming turkey.

Damn him to Hell.

"I'm not going to throw you overboard, yoi. So stop hitting me, it hurts." She heard him say, her thrashing limbs coming to an immediate halt and he felt her relaxing slightly in her uncomfortable position over his shoulder.

"So, you actually just wanted to feel me up, eh, Phoenix?" She immediately shot at him.

God. This woman recovered quickly. Wasn't she just losing her mind a moment ago, now she was back to playfully teasing him?

"Always, Hon." He gave a cocky grin. Posture lazy, yet self-assured at the same time.

"And here I thought you had a thing for younger women." She used the best jealous voice she could muster in her uncomfortable spot. "Tell me Phoenix, was she a good kisser? Who was better?"

He rolled his eyes at her. "I didn't realize you were so insecure, yoi."

"Tsk, tsk." She shook her head, the action making her slightly dizzy from all the blood rushing there in her position. "You're avoiding my question."

He smirked slightly, looking back and meeting honey colored eyes with his own slightly amused ones, before playfully commenting, "And if, hypothetically speaking of course, I said she was?"

"Then obviously, hypothetically speaking of course, I'd call you a li-ar." She clearly pronounced each syllable of the last word just to make sure.

"Even though I've already told you once that I really don't want to lie to you, yoi?" He gave her his best lopsided grin. "This is all hypothetically speaking, of course. Because you know I'd rather be kissing you."

She rolled her eyes at him and pretended to pout, to hide the blush that suddenly decided to appear on her cheeks. When the hell did she start blushing from their little harmless game? She'd definitely turn the tables around. She got as close as possible to his face, even though the awkward position somewhat hurt because his hard body was digging into her stomach and planted a kiss right on the side of his lips. As she pulled away, she could see his eyes widen considerably, before turning his head back in front of him.

"You're not playing fair, yoi." She heard him mumble.

"Just wanted to see what she thought was so interesting." Aiko replied back, doing her best to keep a level voice, even with the blush across her face. What the hell? Wasn't she supposed to be getting back at _him_?So, why the hell was she still blushing like some teenage virgin? She schooled her expression back to her usual grin and fought the red tint down, there was absolutely no way in the name of all the four blues she'd let Marco see her embarrassed, especially after all that he had already seen of her body. Being self-conscious just wasn't something that happened to her whenever the blonde phoenix commander was around.

Marco tightened his grip slightly on the woman over his shoulder, the action just making him remember that god forsaken _kiss. _No, that wasn't a kiss, it wasn't even on the lips. That shit didn't count. He sighed inwardly before looking out to the East, towards the island they'd be stopping by on for some supplies. What he saw though had his eyes once again widening significantly. Disbelief clearly shining through them and had already impossibly arched eyebrows shooting up even higher. All previous thoughts in his mind of that slight graze –_it wasn't a kiss- _replaced by only one sentence.

**_What the fuck was that?_**

* * *

A/N: More actual plot in the chappies to come :D For those that think it's moving along too slowly I'm not really in a rush with this story's plot, haha, cause well they haven't shown Marco in the latest chappies of the manga yet and I don't really want to rush this story too much. I've got a whole 'my pace' attitude thing going on... Anyway,

Please Review!


	13. Chapter 13

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

Aiko and Marco walked through the streets of an exceptionally high class town full of gossiping citizens, all of them speaking in hushed tones, but the two pirates trained ears could still clearly pick up on what they were saying. Marco had been skeptical about going down and docking on this no name island because even from the ship the two –well, he, since Aiko was thrown over his shoulder at the time- could see the overly large golden building right smack in the middle of the island _burning _to the ground. It was quite the sight. The building was undoubtedly the main attraction of the island seeing as how _everyone _decided to up and talk about it, like a fire had never happened before.

Aiko was looking around distastefully at the people around her, they were all well-dressed and had an overly pompous way of speaking, as if they were so much better than the rest of the world. These guys, no matter how she looked at it, had their superior ego filled complex heads so far up their asses that they didn't seem to notice just how ugly they were. What the hell was up with this place? There was no doubt in her mind that these _people _were nobles. Were all nobles this god damned ugly? She had never, not once in her life met a good looking noble. Maybe, someday…

The two pirates seemed so out of place, what with Marco's dark sandals, scruffy pants and open jacket completely exposing lean muscle and Aiko's espadrilles, blue knee length pumpkin shorts and dark brown top leaving her midriff bare for the world to see, compared to the nobles who were all wearing form fitting uncomfortable looking dresses and some form of pressed suit. She could _feel _the eyes of disgustingly fat and greedy men follow her as if she were just another common prostitute that they could pay to do whatever they wanted. Like they could throw a wad of cash at her and make her submit to their will. She scoffed, as if she'd let such vile creatures even lay a finger on her, she had standards, not that these people could see that.

She could hear the whispers around them increase in volume.

"Look at those two! Ugh!"

"What are _people _like _that_ doing here?"

"That woman walking around like a whore!"

"That man has a tattoo!"

"She should just go and skimp around somewhere else!"

"I've never even seen two people dress so disgustingly!"

"Don't look, son!"

She rubbed the back of her head in an annoyed manner as she watched Marco, who as usual had on his perfectly bored expression. She had to hand it to him, he was good at ignoring people when he wanted to. The pair quickly walked towards a random direction, hoping to find a place where they could restock on some ingredients, mostly spices and seasonings for their meals. They walked into what had to be the market, because there were finally _normal _people. They were vendors of the small food stalls. She almost let out a breath in relief at seeing the people selling things in such a lively manner, even if some eyes still followed her form.

Marco eyed Aiko carefully as she let out a breath she seemed to be holding for a while now. He could feel the eyes on them, especially the ones that had been lingering on Aiko since they had docked on this damned island. Did these people really have to stare so much? Had they never seen a woman before? He wanted so much to glare at the people sending looks her way, but instead schooled his expression to his bored one. It wouldn't do any good to attract any more unwanted attention and that's all that would happen if he lashed out at some random citizen. Especially if that random citizen just happened to be a noble, it looked like the whole city was crawling with them.

The two walked up to a random vendor, a young man, selling a variety of spices and sacks upon sacks of seasonings. Aiko carefully looked at a few bags of salt and a large barrel filled with soy sauce. Good thing all they were really in need of was basic seasonings, or else they'd have to spend a considerably longer time on this island than Marco wanted to. There was just something off about this place, it reeked of something foul. An unpleasant stench that was more in the islands aura than the smell of the air itself.

"Phoenix, this looks pretty good." She was carefully inspecting it, he didn't really understand what there was to inspect though. It was soy sauce. Plain and simple.

"Ah! Such a beautiful lady buying from lil 'ol me?" The young man had a muscular physique and a full head of brownish red hair with sideburns as he gave Aiko his best sly looking grin. Marco had to hand it to the kid, he had guts. Saying that to her while he was right there.

Marco shrugged, replying to Aiko before she could give a snarky retort at the vendor. "Are we getting that, yoi?"

She grinned up at him, "Yea." Now, directing her eyes at the young man before her, "I'll take an extra-large barrel of soy sauce, another one of vinegar, one sack of salt, two of pepper, some of that nice looking chili there and a large bottle each of paprika, thyme, oregano and basil. Oh! And some olive oil too!"

The man's eyes widened at the sudden large order, but at least they'd have no problem with money for the next month.

"Coming right up, Miss… uhmm…" Marco internally rolled his eyes at the kid, he really didn't give up, did he?

"Aiko." She replied still with a friendly grin, didn't she realize the kid was obviously head over heels in love with her?

"Ah! I'm Regis." He said as if she had asked. He slowly got to work on putting together the large order.

"Mmm… Say Regis-kun." The kid's head snapped up at the sound of his name from her mouth. So she could call him by his first name, while he had to deal with Phoenix, hot stuff and flaming turkey all the time? "What's the name of this island?"

His dark eyes widened. "You're not from around here? No wonder I hadn't recognized your face." He picked up a few bottles and properly arranged them in a large plastic. "This place is Velveteen Island and like the name, its main product is of course Velvet. Many nobles on this island get their riches from it."

"Hmm…" Aiko hummed as her honey eyes met with Marco's disinterested ones.

"But a few days ago, the large company that's in charge of manufacturing and shipping out the many products caught fire. They're still trying to find the culprits, though it may have just been an accident, but the nobles won't let it go. So, someone has to be punished." He clenched his fists for a second before grinning and rubbing the back of his head. "Well, that's to say, I don't really know much about it. Me and my father came here a few weeks ago you see. I'm just here as a vendor to help put food on the table. But Dad was asked to come here to build a few wax copies of some snotty nobles."

"Wax?" Aiko asked, why wax?

"It's dad's specialty, he's a wax artisan. I'm learning…" He embarrassedly rubbed his cheek with a finger, "But I'm not all that good yet. I'm getting better though!"

"That's pretty amazing, huh?" She grabbed the plastic full of bottles of what she had ordered from him. "Don't you think so, hot stuff?"

Marco shrugged slightly. "Reminds me of someone from the New World, on one of the islands under Pops' protection." He met Aiko's eyes. "Do you remember Hand Island?"

She gave him a happy smirk. Hand Island was one of the few islands where they had found a short time in each other's company. They were of course spotted by one of his mates, Thatch, if she recalled correctly. The blonde commander was probably teased and interrogated endlessly, of that she had no doubt. But, then again so was she and by Yassopp no less! The man had asked what she had been doing with Whitebeard's still wet behind the ears First Division Commander right in the middle of the bustling deck, where of course, Shanks had heard it and flipped out. Marco who had just been a newbie commander then, fresh and newly appointed brought her out to eat a proper meal with him.

"Of course." She replied.

"There's a wax craftsman there named Diego. He had a hobby of making lifelike wax sculptures of great pirates." He smirked at her. "Even I had one."

She scoffed at his cocky attitude.

She had one too, in fact many from her crew had one. But unlike him who had his very own, her wax model was with him, he had no idea when the old wax sculptor had seen them out and about, but his attention was too much on Aiko that day to even notice that kind of useless thing. The sculpture of the two of them was something to behold. It was of a younger Aiko grinning at his own forever younger self. It captured the moment of when they were on that island together perfectly. Well, he wouldn't tell her she had one, he'd rather she see it with her own eyes.

"Anyway," He continued, looking at the part time vendor with lazy eyes. "If I remember correctly, he had a son."

The boy's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he finally turned to properly look at the blonde man before him, instead of the raven haired woman that seemed to captivate all his attention. "You know my old man?!"

Marco nodded slightly and pointed a thumb at the large dark blue tattoo on his chest. "I'm Marco the Phoenix, yoi."

His eyes widened even more, because apparently that was possible. Then his eyes darted to Aiko, then back to the tall Phoenix commander. Were these the two he had actually read about on the paper? These were the two that had two sculptures carefully and meticulously crafted and put away deep inside his father's basement? The real things?

"A-U-uhh…" He seemed to be at a loss for words.

"I think you broke him, Phoenix." Aiko said with an amused glint in her tone.

"I know you too." Marco said shrugging then lifted a hand, palm down to just below his hip, his golden belt shining in the morning sun. "You were this tall then."

The man's cheeks flushed red. It was kinda embarrassing to have such a renowned pirate still remember you as a young boy, especially since he had been a crybaby, snot faced little kid growing up.

"Mmm… Must've been cute." Regis' cheeks exploded once again at the woman's absent minded words. "I wonder how you looked as a boy, Phoenix. I bet you were cute too."

"I always drew maps and got into fights." He said plainly, the image of a child Marco fighting with that cocky smirk entered her mind. The thought had her grinning widely at the blonde man.

"Definitely cute." She muttered.

"Umm…" The two pirates looked at Regis who seemed to have found his voice once again as he said resolutely to the two big shots. "I'm sure father would like to see you two! Could you come visit our place? We're staying at the inn just down the street! He doesn't stop working for maybe another hour or two though."

She looked over at Marco. "Your call, Phoenix."

"Alright, yoi." The man agreed, seems they would have to stay a little longer on this noble infested island even though he really didn't want to have to stay in this town a moment longer than necessary. He ignored it, but it didn't mean he liked the looks he and Aiko got around here. "But, just drop by the ship, yoi. It's docked on the small beach to the west of here."

Regis nodded firmly.

"Do you need help with this load?" The teen asked as he glanced around, seeing that the two had no cart for their things. "I can help carry it back to your ship."

"No thanks." Aiko answered for the blonde as she gathered the three heavyweight sacks full of salt and pepper in her arms, the plastic full of other seasonings dangling from her elbow. She motioned to the lean man before her, "That's why I drag this tough guy along."

"Not because she's secretly lost without me." Marco muttered, grinning slightly as he threw one overly large barrel over each shoulder with fluid ease. The effortless action surprising Regis, New World pirates really were like an entire different class of human. Those extra-large barrels must have been forty kilos each, seeing as how they were filled to the very brim.

Aiko raised an eyebrow at the Phoenix Commanders words, clearly beginning to question the man's sanity.

* * *

As they waited patiently on the ship wanting to actually leave and get a move on to find the hot headed Second Division Commander. Marco almost wished he had said that he'd have no time to see Regis' father, but that would be wrong. Diego was a friend of the Whitebeard Pirates after all and friends of Pops' had to be treated with utmost care.

"I've heard a lot of things about Ace, y'know." Aiko suddenly said, interrupting Marco's thoughts. "He came to visit Shanks' and the crew once back when he was still a rookie. Something about wanting to thank us for taking care of his little brother, Luffy." She beamed, remembering the energetic little rubber boy. Shanks' had entrusted something special to that kid and she couldn't wait to see him again. "I wasn't there at the time though, I was out collecting a Devils Fruit per Captains orders. Shame, I missed my chance to meet the man." She shot Marco a sly grin. "I heard he was smoking hot."

Marco sighed at the woman.

"He's a bit too young for you don't you think, yoi?"

"Do I sense jealousy?" There was none. The man's voice was as plain as white rice. "I've heard the kid's better looking than you. Better body too."

Just what kind of things did this woman hear? Now that he thought about it, did women actually gossip about who was hotter than who? What the hell, wasn't that a guy thing? Did they talk about who was better in bed too? Probably, they were women after all. And, boy, did some women know how to _talk. _It amazed him, how they could chat the day away, in fact he remembered Thatch telling him once that a woman doesn't want to talk with you. She wants you to ask the right question that will allow _her _to talk. The statement proved true when he would be out and about scouting for women, how when they'd excuse themselves to take a call, they could go on and on over the DenDen Mushi at breakneck speeds. His calls usually lasted about 45 seconds, mostly consisting of a report or a time and place.

He thanked the Gods for women that knew when to shut up. Most pirate women did and he had to thank the Gods mentally one more time for that.

"Ace, huh?" Marco imagined the pyromaniac, "He wouldn't be your type, yoi."

She raised an eyebrow in question. "Oh, and what makes you say that?"

"Too much of a hothead for you, Aiko."

She was about to retort, but her mind seemed to stop. Deciding in that moment to go on holiday as she just stared blankly at the Phoenix commander's usual lethargic self. Had he actually, for once in his life not in the bedroom, called her by her God given name? He had, right? She wasn't imagining that? Her name rolled off his tongue in a pleasant sort of way.

"Phoe-"

"It's really you!" A man yelled as he advanced closer and closer towards their modest ship, he had white hair hidden under a red bonnet. Tan skin, a brown cloak, blue overalls and a white tool belt tied tightly around his waist. Like his son, he had a muscular physique but skinnier legs, making him disproportioned. Regis was lagging somewhat behind the wax artisan, looking every bit the younger version of his father.

"Diego-san, yoi." Marco called loudly.

Aiko noticed the man holding a large jug of sake, it looked pretty expensive from what she could see of it. This man really did know just the way to welcome a Yonko's crew.

"GEHEHEHE!" The bulky man laughed, stopping in front of the ship with his son behind him as he threw the bottle over to Marco. "Didn't think I'd actually see you away from the New World."

"Thanks, yoi." He said, lifting the bottle he had thrown at him. "I've got an errand out here." He motioned to Aiko with a tilt of his head, "With one of Shanks' crew."

"Hmm?" The craftsman looked at the woman with a questioning gaze, before recognition flashed in his old passionate eyes. "You're Killer Punch, aren't you?"

Aiko grinned happily at the recognition. Not many recognized them out here in _Paradise. _Why they didn't, was beyond her. I mean, pirates with high bounties were notorious worldwide after all. Did the people really pay that little attention to the faces in the media?

"I made a sculpture of Red-haired once."

"Really?" She asked, grinning excitedly, the thought of her Red-headed Captain entering her mind. What face had he made? She always felt that his grinning face was the best, though if it was a sculpture it would most likely be a more serious one. "Did you meet my Captain?"

"Yea, way back when your crew docked on Hand Island." He gestured to Regis who was silent behind him. "He was still a boy then."

Said boy's eyes widened. If he was still a boy when his father had seen her with the Phoenix commander, then just how old was this woman? Did he really try to hit on a woman more than twice his age? His entire face flushed in embarrassment.

"How nostalgic…" Aiko murmured, thinking about the island back in the New World, they had only stayed there for a few days, but it was memorable. She had seen the Phoenix commander there after all. Hand Island was a prosperous island filled with artisans of all kinds, they could work peacefully there at their passions, at their calling. Not a soul dared to cause trouble there, since it was an island under Whitebeard's protection.

Diego pointed a finger between her and Marco. "I also have one of the two of you, walking around that night." The man grinned. "I just _knew _there was _something_ going on between the two of you."

"It's nothing, yoi!" Marco defended immediately. "This whole thing was just coincidence!"

"Co-in-ci-dence!" Aiko confirmed, for once not using the opportunity to sarcastically respond and instead agreeing with the Phoenix.

"GEHEHEHE!" He laughed, even though they were honestly telling the truth. She didn't get geezers this age. Even though she was pretty old herself, but she had a long way before becoming a wrinkly old hag. All old bags seemed to have a screw loose _somewhere._

"For a second, I didn't think Marco would do something so rash, it's just not something a Whitebeard Pirate would do." Diego said, the two still thinking he was talking about their _nonexistent_ relationship. "I didn't actually believe the rumors when they had said that the two of you blew up the Velvet Factory, stole riches and took a crew of subordinates under your wing."

The smiles on the two pirate's faces instantly disappeared.

What did he just say?

* * *

_A/N: Sorry, this is a day late. It slipped my mind last night. :D And slow progression of the story, I'll be posting random omake chappies when I feel like it, haha.. So, Stay tuned!_

_**Alice**: Here is your update! And I wuv you too, you avid reviewer you~~._

_**Hitsugaya Hibari Nico Robin**: Gotta love Marco and his tsundere ways :D_

**_PLEASE REVIEW~~!_**


	14. Chapter 14

_Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece_

* * *

The words took a moment to register in their minds, but when it did the effect was instantaneous and Diego could tell because the atmosphere suddenly weighed down on the four there, it was so heavy that he was actually starting to have trouble breathing, consciously reminding himself that he needed to take deep breaths. The two pirates before him stood with an intent to kill in their eyes, now seemingly very interested in every word he uttered. No doubt, the thought of two impersonators out there would garner all kinds of unwanted attention and as an added bonus ruin their reputations.

"You mean that building I saw a mile away _burning_?" Marco asked, expression dead as if the person before him wasn't an old friend. "And did you say subordinates, yoi?"

Regis gulped at the threat laced into the blonde commanders' words. How had he not seen how frightening the two before him were when they were at his part time stall? Were all pirates like this? He looked towards the woman standing next to Aiko, that grin gone replaced by a cold expression.

"Subordinates…" Aiko muttered angrily under her breath, something only Marco with his close proximity could hear, before addressing Diego with a tone that only grew angrier and louder the more she spoke. "Stole, you say? Do you know what they told their subordinates? How did they join? ARE THEY SAILING UNDER SHANKS FLAG!?"

Aiko was starting to see red.

Do anything to her and she'd play it off, that was something that took time for her to learn. Something Shanks' instilled in her brain, but this just wasn't one of those times. This wasn't just some petty little thing that she could ignore and laugh off. Impersonating someone was horrible, but to impersonate _her _and ruin _her _reputation, mock _her _skill with such a petty fire of a no name island, to assume that someone could fill _her _shoes. This was a direct insult to the pride of a red-haired pirate, to her family, to _Shanks… _He was the man that had saved her. Picked her up and given her a home and a family. What the hell did that person know about her?

'_Stay away from her.'_

'_Don't look at her, you'll get a disease.'_

'_DIE!'_

'_Filthy trash of the street. Hurry up and die already.'_

'_WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SON?!'_

Aiko shut her eyes to drown out the voices.

'_**Hey, kid. That was really cool, so you can't control your Haki, huh?'**_

How dare they, if they sailed under her Captains flag she'dfucking _kill_ them.

'_**Me an' him are nice guys, so don't you worry your pretty little head. We'll teach ya how to do it properly. But first, sit down… IT'S A BANQUET!'**_

She felt a hand land on her shoulder.

Opening her eyes to see lazy eyes staring at her with an oddly scrutinizing gaze.

"Everything okay, yoi?"

"Yea." She muttered, taking a brief look at the two wax sculptors standing in front of the ship just staring at her with unsure gazes. She took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves down before continuing, "Do you know where those two imposters are?"

"No, but they'd most likely be to the South of the village. Were in the East side of the island right now." Diego explained carefully. "There is a big wall dividing this place and the other half, here is where mostly nobles live, but there are also a few more normal citizens. To the South… well…"

"The thugs, yoi." Marco finished. "All those unwanted scum." He looked towards Aiko, "Seems we went to the wrong side."

She shrugged slightly.

"Let's go start our search then." Aiko said irately.

Marco stared unwaveringly at her, before shaking his head and responding in that ever calm voice of his. "No."

"What?"

"You stay here, yoi." He stared at the woman's face, taking in every feature under his observant gaze. "You're angry, I'll come get you when I have a lead." He looked towards Regis and Diego, "You two, watch her."

"Wait, Phoen-"

Before she could retort, he shifted into his Phoenix form and flew off.

* * *

"That stupid, god forsaken, pineapple headed, arrogant, self-absorbed, smart sexy assed, egotistical FLAMING TURKEY!"

The father and son watched how for the past two and a half hours the raven haired woman in front of them shouted whatever came into her mind about the First Division Commander that so quickly left without giving the woman a chance to speak. But, they also noticed how even with all her whining and shouting, she didn't leave the ship. At all. Not even to parade through the sand of the beach because with the insane amount of pressure she was stomping her heels on the wooden deck it was a wonder it wasn't breaking, not even a scratch on its smooth and polished surface.

"I'm gonna kill him. He thinks cause I slept with him that I won't do it." She stomped wedge heeled shoes so hard on the deck, she was _sure _the steel plates below were slowly being dented. "He thinks that god damned creepy _smirk _of his will prevent me from ripping his _fucking head from his shoulders. _Phoenix healing be damned."

The two flinched slightly at the dark words leaving the woman's mouth.

"Now, now…" Diego said, finally speaking up and throwing to her the bottle of sake Marco had thrown back at him mere moments before taking flight. "Have a drink and let's just wait patiently. I'm sure he'll be back soon."

She gave him a fierce glare even as she caught the bottle effortlessly with one gauntlet enclosed hand, before she reminded herself that she needed to grin at the man, not try to push him away. Shanks would be scolding her right now if she didn't calm the hell down and there was nothing more annoying than being scolded by an overgrown child. She took three long and deep breaths, getting her temper under control before giving the two men before her a dazzling, friendly smile.

"Sorry." She muttered. "The man just pisses me off. I don't like being left behind."

"GAHAHAHAHA!" Diego laughed, motioning for his son to come and sit down next to him, they had taken a seat right in front of the medium sized ship on the cool sands of the beach. The sun had long since set, the pale moon giving off a faint glow as the sea reflected it perfectly. Lighting up what would have otherwise been dark, lonely shores. "What are you two doing all the way out here anyway? I've never seen Marco-san leave Whitebeard's side."

"We've got an important mission." She said, taking a healthy swig of sake straight from the bottle. Regis' eyes widened slightly, the woman was drinking it like water. "This is good stuff, where'd you get it?"

"GAHAHAHA! You have good taste!" Diego was grinning ear to ear at the woman. "It was part of the payment from the noble whose wax sculpture I made."

"Hmm…" She took a look at the bottles label. "Is it really okay for me to be drinking this?"

"Go ahead. Go ahead." He waved the entire topic aside, clearly it wasn't something he wanted Aiko to dwell on. "You're a friend of Marco-san."

She gave him another grin. A grin the two couldn't help but keep their eyes on. "You're a good guy, old man."

"WHO YOU CALLING OLD?!"

She laughed happily before taking another swig.

Was this woman a fish? Drinking at that pace could not be healthy.

"Ahh! Sake makes me miss my crew! We'd drink this stuff daily."

"DAILY?" Diego questioned, clearly wondering about the state of this woman's liver. Alcohol this strong… daily? Just how much pocket change did the Red-haired Pirates have? Strong, quality sake was expensive. "Ahh, Red-haired pirates do like to party." He added as an afterthought, was there some kind of special thing in alcohol? Did it make you stronger or something?

The woman was still donning that overly huge grin. "You met my Captain right? I'd love to see it… his sculpture."

"It was a lifetime ago, I've even got one of Lucky Roux." He looked straight at the woman's shining honey eyes. "Yours and Marco-sans is a masterpiece though."

"Really? You have his whole sleepy look and everything down? No joke?" She tried to imitate his usual bored face and failed epically. "The man's a charmer though, when he's arrogant." She placed a finger on her lips. "Oh, but don't tell him I told you that."

"GAHAHAHAHA!" Diego laughed again, how long had it been since he laughed this much? "Now that I think about it, what _were_ the two of you doing together on Hand island?"

She winked.

"It's no fun if I kiss and tell and the egotistical man isn't around to react." She shrugged. "Then there's absolutely no point."

"Is that so?" He said grinning widely. "How long have the two of you been together?"

"Together?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "It's not like that, old man. We're just a man and woman that slept together a few times." She waved the hand that wasn't holding the bottle to and fro. "Though that was back when we were a decade younger."

Regis choked on his own saliva at the woman's response. A decade? Really? How old was this woman? He knew Marco was fairly old and didn't at all look it, was this woman the same age? Did he hit on a woman that could possibly be two or three times his age? God, he wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and never come out again. And wait… had she said slept together? As in… sex? He mentally shivered at the thought. Then why weren't they together if they had already gotten that far? They looked pretty close when they bought supplies from him, but nowhere near _that _close. As if some imaginary boundary stood between them.

"Here, hot stuff!"

She threw the bottle at Regis, who was caught off guard. The bottle jumping up and down in his hands for a bit before he was able to steady it. Of course, not without getting a face full of sand first that had the woman laughing once more.

"WATCH IT!" The young man yelled up at her.

"Have a drink. That look on your face is way too uptight." She said, as if it were normal to be handing teenagers' alcohol, though for her it probably was. But, he kind of questioned the way she said it, because it was as if it wasn't directed to him at all, even though he was the one she threw the bottle to. It was as if she were talking to a spot well past him and not actually him.

He looked at the bottle and was amazed that after her two swigs, only less than half of the entire thing remained. What was wrong with this woman? Were all pirates like this? That was a crazy amount of alcohol to consume in the span of a measly ten minutes, how in all the Blues was she still standing? If it was him, he'd be out cold after this much especially since this particular sake was strong and not to mention expensive. Hadn't she ever heard of the word savoring? Sake like this didn't come around every other day.

Wait.

If he took a sip from this wasn't that like an indirect kiss?

He blushed deeply.

Wait. Wait. Wait.

The woman was old, yes, she didn't look it, but that didn't change the fact that his first kiss would be with an older woman, a pirate at that and he had no idea just _where _her lips had been in her questionable lifetime. He mentally slapped himself for thinking such stupid things, she didn't seem to care that she was about to share an indirect kiss with him after all. But she could quite possibly be the Phoenix Commanders' woman, but then again she _did _say they were just friends.

He shook his head, clearing it of all his ridiculously stupid thoughts, looking at his father from the corner of his eye for a split second to see if he had any problem with him drinking, when his father didn't do anything to stop him, he gave himself a mental _'just do it.'_

He lifted the bottle with a slightly unsteady hand and was just about to take a sip, when it was nicked right from his hands in one swift motion, he didn't even register the action until it was completely gone from his tight grasp.

Eh?

He turned to see the Phoenix Commander, hand on one hip and the other on the bottle as he was busily drinking up all that was left in big healthy gulps. His entire head thrown back so as to down it faster. A trail of sake running from his mouth and down his throat was visible, the spilled sake sparkling in the moonlight. Wait, when she had said _'hot stuff' _had she meant the Whitebeard commander? His face exploded once more in a dark shade of crimson. So, she wanted him to hand it to the blonde man?

'_Okay, if a hole would open up and swallow me whole then that would be great. Actually it would be prefect. Anytime now, hole. I'm so ready.'_

When Marco was done, he brought the bottle down from his lips and wiped at his mouth before uttering the very same words Aiko had said when she first tasted it. "Good stuff, yoi."

Both Diego and Aiko grinned. Regis had his head down, dying from embarrassment at his mistake, but no one really seemed to notice anyway, so there was no reason for him to be embarrassed. Marco even raised a questioning eyebrow at him before he started shaking the now empty bottle in his hand.

"Hon, yoi." He called out to the woman who had been so angry and ready to physically hurt the man not even an hour ago.

"Hmmm?" She hummed in question, cradling her chin in one hand and leaning on the ships railing. All previous anger forgotten after the alcohol and conversation worked its magic.

He waved the bottle at her. "You barely left me anything, yoi. What's with that?"

She grinned and pointed a finger at Regis. "He drank it."

Was she _trying _to get the revered Phoenix commander angry? Actually, judging by the teasing grin on her face, she probably was. Regis was about to protest, before Marco said clearly. "Liar."

She just smiled down at him. Didn't even try to defend herself against his truthful accusation.

"I missed you too, Phoenix."

"Oi, lay down on the sweet words._ This_ is why people get the wrong idea whenever we're together, yoi."

"They're just jealous."

"GAHAHAHA!" Diego laughed at the bickering duo, "You two were like this too, back on Hand Island. Good to know, things don't really change all that much."

"This woman's stubborn."

"This man's stubborn."

The two answered at the same time, looking at each other for a brief moment of awkward silence, before Marco spoke. Bringing the conversation to another direction.

"Anyway, I found where they're staying for the night. They plan to leave tomorrow at noon, yoi."

"Hmm… Relaxed aren't they?"

He shrugged indifferently, face still the perfect picture of composure even after consuming almost half a bottle of alcohol. "Seems they took a lot of the country's cashback from all the velvet they sold in the past year. Millions of Beli, no doubt. They really were impersonating us, scaring people shitless too, yoi. They got their subordinates by gathering random no name thugs and some lower level pirates, saying they'd lead them into the New World or some other such nonsense."

Aiko raised an eyebrow. "Mmm… Lower level pirates?"

"20-50 Million. Nothing big, yoi."

"That's not big?" Regis questioned, completely interrupting the flow and pace of the two pirates talking so seriously before him.

"Small fry like that, yoi?" Marco shot Regis a confident grin, he had the air of a man that owned the world. It was no wonder Aiko-san found him appealing. Few had such an aura, even fewer could pull it off so perfectly. "I'm Marco the Phoenix."

Even though he had only said his name, even though it sounded so completely arrogant, Regis didn't doubt the power behind it.

* * *

The two seasoned pirates walked towards where their doubles were supposedly staying for the night. The streets of the lower half of the Island were nothing short of scary. It was the type of place you _really _didn't want to live in, let alone have a family in. But it seemed people _did _have families here and they'd fester and rot one by one in this hellhole. This place was a _dump. _Its buildings were old and breaking apart, whores and all kinds of perverse men paraded and roamed around the streets, especially since it was already dark. Nighttime really brought out the worst kinds of people. Everyone moved as if they owned the place, people spoke as if they knew everything the world had to offer, perhaps they did. What more was there to learn about the world than right in its deepest darkest pits after all?

A whore latched herself nonchalantly onto Marco's front, her bosom right up against his chest and looking to pop out of the small corset she wore any second now. This was the third time this happened already. He declined with his ever bored expression that brought a pout to the woman's lips before, with all the grace of a cat, he quickly strode right by the woman before she could notice. Already far away before she could even turn around to call out to him.

"You must have so many diseases, Phoenix." She looked back at the woman they had so casually side stepped before thinking for a second, "Wait. But won't you just be cured? I mean, Phoenix healing and all."

"Doesn't mean I want to have dirty sex, yoi."

"Riiiight." She winked at him. "What was that with me then?"

He rolled his eyes, noticing the amount of men leering at the woman beside him. He _really _hated this place. Glaring fiercely at the men, seemed to deter them though.

"This way." Marco said, turning and motioning with his head to a large wooden building resembling an inn. It had a small sign in front that had the words '_SageBush_' in big bold blue letters. This particular building actually looked cleaner than the rest and it was quiet. Too quiet for an inn that was probably housing all kinds of ruffians. Was this a trap?

"This place feels… off." Aiko muttered.

Marco just shrugged at her words, face and posture perfectly at ease as always. "It's fine, yoi. Or do you think I should be protecting you? I didn't think Red-haired Pirates were so weak."

She brought her eyes to meet his, they were practically smirking at her with challenge. "Well, we_ have _to downplay our game a little, to give you Whitebeard Pirates a fair chance."

He didn't show it, but Aiko just _knew _she had struck a nerve. "You shouldn't lie so much, yoi. It's not a good habit. Men tend to avoid lying women."

"Now, _Phoenix…_" Marco swore that AIko was practically purring, the amusement in her voice was all too obvious. "Be it lying or whatever, anything having to do with me…" She gave him a mischievous grin. "Isn't that your specialty?"

He rolled his eyes, wanting very badly to kiss that grin right off her face, but he knew of another way. Instead of replying, he gestured for her to go first, "Ladies first."

She raised her eyebrow a bit at the small smirk on his face, but didn't question it. The man was planning something, there was no doubt in her mind about that. Anyway, he had said for her to go first, but didn't make a move to open the door, so with one firm push of her hand. The door hit the adjacent wall with a resounding _bang._

Everyone in the _fine _establishment stopped for a second to stare at the guests that opened the door so rudely and the two stared right back. One with an ever bored face though amusement was playing in his eyes and the other with unbelievably wide eyes and mouth slightly ajar as if she were about to speak.

Aiko whirled around towards Marco, who grinned easily at her.

"WHAT IS THIS?!" Aiko yelled at the blonde man as she pointed to a half-naked woman serving drinks to an overly fat man.

"Mmm?" Marco replied nonchalantly. "A brothel, yoi."

"Oi. I can see that! My point is, why you didn't think it necessary to _**tell **_me?!" She gestured to the people still staring at them as if they suddenly grew extra body parts.

"Sorry." He said the word in such an unrepentant tone, even Shanks in his best mood wouldn't have believed him.

She was definitely going to get back at him for this.

Whirling back around towards the scantily clad –and completely nude- men and women in the room, wait… was that a group orgy on the other side? She shook her head, she _really _didn't want to see this.

Aiko placed a hand on her forehead and sighed exasperatedly at this whole situation. "We're looking for-"

"Who are you?" A man cut her off, pointing a chubby finger at her before asking the prostitute next to him. "A worker here? I'd like to order her."

"Uhh.. No, sir. She isn't." The whore explained, "But… I'm still free for the night."

Marco and Aiko took a good look at the man the whore was trying to… well… whore herself out to. He had a beer belly with shoulder-length blonde hair, a bad looking red tattoo on the side of his large stomach and a… purple jacket.

Wait.

Was this…?

Aiko was patting a blankly staring Marco's arm as she exploded with laughter. Who cares if this guy just asked if she was a whore and if he could buy her for a night. Was this guy really… She took a look at him again, blonde hair and all, before having another manic fit of laughter.

"OI! WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT WOMAN?! DON'T YOU KNOW WHO **I** AM?!" The man yelled, well, at least he had the overconfidence down. "I'M PHOENIX MARCO, FIRST DIVISION COMMANDER OF THE WHITEBEARD PIRATES!"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Aiko was practically in tears as she held her stomach, the only support holding up her weight was the blonde commander next to her, who was not at all pleased by the situation. Judging by the man's death glare that could send the worst criminals of Impel Down running with their tails between their legs. Did people really believe that fatso was Marco? One of the most powerful men in the world, renowned across every sea, Whitebeard's right hand man. Were people really _this_ retarded? She was starting to lose faith in humanity. "At least he has the size of your ego down… ne?" She nudged Marco with her elbow.

Marco placed a large tanned hand on her head.

"Want me to burn your hair off?" He muttered darkly at her.

She paled.

"OI!" A random pirate with two large clubs yelled. She identified the pirate, he had been on the news recently, small time. Some random back article, that most only read when bored beyond belief, but both she and Marco read through the whole newspaper. They needed any and all the information they could get after all. This man was Backslash Byro 48 Million Beli. "Don't go laughing at the Commander."

"Yea!" Another yelled in agreement, he was wearing a steel plate all over his body. If she recalled correctly, this man was Ivory Tower Kozu, 32 Million Beli. "Do you wanna die?! HUH?!"

"What's going on here?!" The high pitched voice of a woman suddenly screeched as she came walking in, sandaled feet stomping as if the world had pissed her off simply by existing. "MARCO! TELL THEM TO SHUT THE HELL UP!"

"ONEE-SAN!"

"THESE TWO ARE TO BLAME!"

"You two! I'm Killer Punch Aiko, I know you want me, but I don't sleep with random people, especially women. Got it? So get out of this place!"

Marco and Aiko's eyes were met with the sight of a very short woman donning a skirt, fingerless gloves and a light blue mid-riff baring sweater top that exposed a large stomach with a poorly done Jolly Roger mark on her back. Her face was twisted into a sneer and she had plain black eyes. Aiko took the time to rove her eyes up and down the woman's form. There was no way in all the four blues and the grand line and for Roger's sake, she DID NOT look like that!

She took a peek at Marco who had a full blown smirk gracing his features. He was definitely holding back laughter.

"At least she's got your personality down, yoi."

"Tsk." Aiko looked away displeased.

"Anyway…" Real Marco spoke up, pointing a finger at the fake Aiko. "First of all and this is from experience, she _does_ sleep with random men, from cheap questionable bars too."

"Oi, _Phoenix._" Aiko called dangerously, something the man ignored as he continued as if she hadn't even spoken, everyone in the building had their attention on him.

He then took his time and pointed at his own fake with a small smirk on his face. "I don't pay to sleep with women. _Especially _one I've already had, yoi." He said it in his usual neutral voice, Aiko didn't know if the man was defending her, being a smug bastard or asserting his claim over her in front of everyone here. Either way, the way he had phrased those words had her fists aching to punch him.

"SHUT UP! Don't you two know who I am?! HUH?!" Fake Marco stood with all the confidence of a man that knew he wouldn't be hurt. He gestured with a fat hand for the men around him to attack. "GET THEM!"

* * *

_A/N: Happy Halloween, my dear readers! I, myself love everything sweet... except coconut in chocolate, that's just all forms of wrong._

_Updates will now be Fridays instead of Thursdays, because I've been neglecting my other story and more readers are reading and reviewing that one.. so, I'll have to divert SOME attention to it... Anyway,_

_ Alice: Ahhh~~ I'm a senpai! 3_

_ Hitsugaya Hibari Nico Robin: Yes, yes they are :D_

_ XxFirePhoenixxX: Coincidences, you gotta love 'em. :D_

**_Please Don't Forget to REVIEW!_**


End file.
